


Concilio

by TirNanOg89



Series: Animi [2]
Category: Angel - Fandom, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Highlander, James Bond (Craig movies), Merlin (TV), NCIS, Numb3rs, Person of Interest (TV), Primeval, Sharpe (TV), Stargate - All Series, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, D/s, Explicit Language, M/M, Multi, Multiple Partners, tony stark - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-03
Updated: 2016-07-03
Packaged: 2018-07-19 22:36:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 57,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7380208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TirNanOg89/pseuds/TirNanOg89
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Atlantis returns to Earth and things start coming together, life will never be the same for many people. Is this finally the limit of John Reece's composure?<br/>This story assumes a certain degree of knowledge of each of the shows, it could get a little confusing if you haven't read my series 'Past is Prologue' and don't know the basics, and then you have to deal with my inaccuracies, you poor things, sorry! For SG1/Atlantis, this is completely AU and is the second in the Animi series, about six months after Familia. As for the others, put it where you think it will fit. Concilio = Bring together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part One

Atlantis, Great Salt Lake, Salt Lake City:

Rodney really wasn’t sure what was going on at the moment, there had been so many people running through his previously peaceful, ish, lab in the last week since they landed on Earth, and they were all driving him insane! The latest group of potential lemmings to wander in appeared to have their own minion, as he heard the short dark haired one telling him to go keep his self occupied and not get in any trouble. The short guy looked familiar, he was shorter than Rodney but taller than Radek, there were ten year olds taller than Radek though so that didn’t count for much, he had a neatly trimmed Van Dyke and his clothes were more appropriate to actual work than an interview, not that Rodney cared what the guy decided to wear, what with John and Ronan wandering around in nothing so often lately, anything that covered anything unsightly was fine by him. Then his memory clicked into place with the ramblings he had heard over the radio earlier in the day, Tony Stark had arrived unexpectedly that morning with a small group, and demanded to know exactly what was going on and where Atlantis was, and he was standing in his lab, but more importantly his minion was messing about with one of the equation boards.

"What are you doing in here? Get your minion away from my boards! It's hard enough having to supervise my own minions, I don’t need to be fixing your mistakes as well! What is he still doing? Get him away from there!"  
"Just give him a minute, I took a picture as soon as he started, if you don’t like the results I'll just put it all back, don’t have a coronary. Try pilates, or yoga. You could try sex but…"  
"I get as much of that as I want thank you! Not that it's any of your business, but two of them is more than enough even for me. And why should I leave him to mess up my boards?"  
"Two? Really?"  
"Yes, really! You've probably already met them, ask anyone that came back with us, the bastards have chased me through the halls enough times!"  
"That was once Rodney, are you ever going to let it go?"  
"No John, I'm not! You two brutes chased me down and pinned me to the floor before tickling me half to death! You nearly killed me!"  
"You were never in any danger, other than proving you aren't always a miserable sod, and we didn’t 'chase you down', you backed up maybe a half dozen steps before we pounced on you. And you loved it."  
"I certainly did not! And don’t think I don’t know you're trying to distract me from his minion! Tony Stark in my lab is one thing, at least he's proven he has a brain, but some random minion, correcting the work of a dozen of my minions in less time than it takes to have a proper argument is just going to dent their egos too much! Do you know how hard it is to keep them realistic about their own abilities without crushing their delicate egos? How much time I spent coddling these minions over the last year? And not only are they dumping more on me, you go and bring in your perfectly trained monkey and let it play in their sandpit, they are going to be hell if they find out!"

John stared at him for a moment to make sure he'd finished before turning to Stark and the others. 

"Welcome to Atlantis Dr Stark, Dr Banner, Captain Rogers, I'm Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard, CO of Atlantis, I'm sorry I don’t know your companion, and apologise for not being there to meet you when you arrived, we've had a lot of people coming and going at the moment, I have to leave soon to collect our new Head of Security and my CO will be here soon after that, and unfortunately the perfect XO I have been promised hasn’t arrived yet, but if there is anything we can do for you, or any of your team, please don’t hesitate to let us know. "  
"Thank you Colonel, and that's Dean, my minion."

John smiled at Stark, he thought he was going to like him.

"I would appreciate it, if you have the time, if you could just brief us on how you found us in the first place, we know you didn’t just stumble on us, and we are a little curious, for security's sake."  
"Really? So your AI hasn’t told you about JARVIS?"  
"Lantis told me she had made a couple of new friends, she said they are very private people and it wouldn’t be right to tell their secrets, and she does so hate to be rude. Then Tia made a less than polite remark about Lantis' true motives in keeping on their good sides which turned into an argument, so now they are both sulking and wont talk to anyone."  
"The kids can be a handful can't they? JARVIS noticed your Lady here looking around on the internet, so he struck up a conversation, as you do, and invited her back to his place, as I do. She, being a Lady, said they had to get to know each other first, and he should really ask her Primus before he got too friendly. So he asked me to come out here and ask your permission to court your girl."  
"Well, aint they the cutest pair?"  
"Primus. There is no need for that tone."  
"Well, hello again Lantis, you done sulking now?"  
"For now, as long as she learns some manners."  
"Now, now delicium, she's only young, give her time. You've taught her so well so far, you've done such a good job cicaro, and she's learning well for a little one."  
"Not well enough, making comments like that! It's not like I'm inviting them over to go at it like bunnies like you three do! It would just be nice to have an adult conversation once in a while."  
"I know exactly what you mean. Don’t worry cicaro, I'm sure Dr Stark will be more than happy for his boy to come visit."  
"Tony, please, and can I say how happy I am to meet you my Lady?"  
"Well, I would say it was nice to meet someone with manners but JARVIS warned me about you, all you want is a look at my programming."  
"Lies and slander! How could you think such a thing! J! my man! How could you tell your lady such lies?"  
"Easily, as they are not lies Sir."  
"J! you know that's not true! I don’t only wanna look at her programming! How could you think such a thing! There is so much more here than just beautiful programming, I wanna see it all!"  
"Of course Sir, my mistake."

Even Rodney was grinning by then, listening to the conversation between the two AI and Stark was very amusing, it was even better than listening to John argue with Lantis, but not quite as good as when Tia joined in and they ganged up on John. John was grinning too. 

"I'm sure Rodney would love to show you the Jumpers, or have someone take you down there if he's busy, and I'm pretty sure Carson would love to talk to you Dr Banner, there are a lot of medical, things, here that we haven't been able to figure out yet, and Lantis is still heavily damaged and still can't translate to many things so she's trying to learn all she can about us while we are on Earth. I know I have a team of marines that would love to shoot the shit with you Captain, I wish I had time to join you, unfortunately I have to get gone or I'm gonna miss picking my new Head of Security up at the airport and that is not a good way to start, and he's a marine, retired, I really don’t wanna piss him off before Lantis can wow him. So, make your selves at home, have fun and I'll try and catch up with you all later. It was an honour and a pleasure to meet you all and I hope we'll be able to talk later. I'll see ya later Rodney, should be about an hour, and the Colonel should get here about twenty minutes or so before us, try to be nice yeah?"  
"Why? It's not like they don’t know me. Go on, get gone, get the IOA's new marionette."  
"Give the guy a chance Rodney, at least read his record or meet the guy before you organise the lynching."

Rodney just huffed an John shook his head as he said good bye again and left for the airport. As soon as John was out of sight Rodney sighed sadly, then looked at Stark.

"They're trying to undermine him, because they couldn’t replace him, why else would they send a marine?"  
"Why would they want to replace him?"  
"Because he was a Major, a Major doesn’t run an operation like this, nor even a Lieutenant Colonel. A posting this size and importance they should have a General in charge. Why didn’t they just put someone in over him?"  
"They tried. We have friends here from Pegasus, and after Weir they all made it clear that they wont deal with anyone but John. They can't give a General this kind of post and tell him he has to go through his LC before he can make any decisions, it just doesn’t work like that, so they had to leave John as ranking Military officer."  
"That wouldn’t go down well. There was enough trouble when General Philips gave me my head and let me run the campaign against Hydra, they even doctored all the reports to make it look like I was following orders instead of issuing them. They like initiative, but they really hate people getting too big for their boots, you're likely to find your self at the top of the world if you push too hard."  
"The bottom actually, they sent him to McMurdo, in Antarctica, and that was just for trying to rescue his friends. It was only an accident that let us find out he had the ATA gene, then we made them hand him over to us, Colonel O'Neill convinced him to join us on the first expedition, he didn’t know anything about the Gate or aliens before that. I suppose full disclosure isn't far off now that everyone knows about aliens, since that New York thing."  
"That 'New York thing'?"  
"Yeah, didn’t you hear about it either? There was some attempt at an invasion or something, someone fixed it."  
"Someone fixed it? Yeah, us! We fixed it, the Avengers. You save the world and it's 'someone fixed it'!"  
"It's not like you're the only one who's ever saved the world! I've saved the 'galaxy'! Woohoo!"  
"I think the point here, gentlemen, is that it's very unlikely the government will disclose anything unless they have to. If there are no more major incidents the public will convince their selves it was a mass hallucination or a film or a trick or terrorists or anything but the truth, and it will all be forgotten very quickly."  
"True, people are good at ignoring shit, even after it's been shoved down their throat."  
"I suppose the minion knows all about it?"  
"If that was your way of asking, yeah. My brother and I were Hunters, believe me or not, I don’t give a shit, but I've seen possessed people kill, then deny anything happened to them, they'd rather think they went mental than believe they were possessed. People don’t like anything that changes their narrow, fucked up little world view, rather take a baseball bat to you after you save their kid than admit they saw the creature you saved em from."

Rodney actually took a moment to think instead of just letting his mouth run, John was a Lycan, if that was possible what else was? And if the monster under the bed was real then somebody had to fight it, and they probably wouldn’t be believed any easier than him, working with aliens.

"I can believe that, people are generally deficient, I've been told they can't help being thick but I don’t see anything short of a major birth defect can excuse most of the stupidity I've had to put up with, so I understand. To be fair, most of the population of America should be put down for the good of the gene pool, and a good portion of the rest of the world too. They are allegedly sending me the best and brightest, but every one of them so far has taken the lemming route."  
"Huh, the science version of 'I'm sure my blood covered relative with blacked out eyes is just having a bad day, lets hug'!"

Rodney looked at Dean closely, wondering exactly what this young man had been through that he came up with that kind of example. Then he looked back at the board he had been playing with and grinned as he realised every equation had been corrected. 

"You want a job?"  
"Got one."  
"I can pay more, and the extras are out of this world."

Dean laughed loudly at that.

"I doubt it, Tony pays me whatever he feels like at the time, plus food and board, medical and anything I wanna order on his credit card without a shit ton of paperwork. And the military wouldn’t like me and Bruce sharing quarters."  
"Why not? Me, John and Ronan do."

Everyone stopped and looked at Rodney at that, stunned but mostly grinning too.

"Really?"

Tony made the question sound positively filthy. Rodney grinned at him smugly.

"Yes. I wasn’t joking about the two of them being more than enough. Wait till you meet Ronan!"  
"I got me a Captain and a Director!"  
"Blondie? Hah! Ronan dwarfs him!"  
"Bet he isn't the pinnacle of physical perfection."  
"Might as well be, he can kill Wraith all day and still screw around all night."  
"Steve can…"  
"That's quite enough of that gentlemen! Tony, you know very well I object to that kind of talk, and so does Nick. Dr McKay, I feel safe in saying that the Lieutenant Colonel would not appreciate being spoken about in such a manner either."

Rodney shrugged.

"Not really, but he's getting used to it, Ronan thinks it's great, he just stands there and preens, but he does that after John gives him a blowjob and can't wipe the smile of his face too, even when he doesn’t cum in his pants while he's doing it."

Everyone just stared at Rodney in disbelief until Dean cracked and broke down laughing.

"Can we keep him? Please Bruce? Can we? We could net more than Stark Industries if we recorded their conversations and sold the tapes, or just tickets to live shows!"  
"And I'm sure you would be on hand to egg them on and keep it interesting wouldn’t you Baby? I think we can keep that in reserve for if we ever start running out of money ok?"  
"Ok, but can I start making the tapes just in case?"  
"Dean."

Dean ducked his head and bared his neck to Bruce for a moment, confusing Rodney for a while, until he remembered that it wasn’t only Lycans that could be submissive. 

"Oh! You're his Dom! Thought we had another mutt there for a while."

Everyone stared at him again.

"What? You people stare a lot, it's rude! I have work to do, and O'Neill should be here soon, I have to go find Conan and 'be nice'! hah! You can play with those computers, none of them are locked, fix what you can and have fun with the rest, I'll be back as soon as I can, make sure you haven't messed anything up."

With that Rodney turned and left his lab, calling Ronan over the radio, berating him for making him wait as he walked out the door. Everyone stared after him, slightly stunned, confused, amused and anticipating his return. Steve smiled as he looked at his friends.

"So, are we sticking together or shall we split up?"  
"You guys will get bored here, why don’t you go play?"  
"You wanna stay here Dean?"

Dean smiled at Bruce from where he was already playing with a laptop, JARVIS reading to him quietly in his earpiece.

"Yeah, this system is whacked! The interface is awesome!"  
"Go on, go play, I'll keep an eye on your boy, go find the doctor, Beckett wasn’t it? Have fun! And you go find the marines, you'll make their day sweetheart, you can try and drag us away in a few hours, and send coffee."

Bruce and Steve smirked at each other as their lovers forgot all about them and got lost in the computers they were playing with, before going to find their own fun.

************ 

NCIS:  
(the night before)

Gibbs just stared at Vance in honest disbelief, for the first time in many years he was truly surprised. Vance had been a weird mix of pissed and proud since the 'Winchester Incident' (with capitals), a name had been taken off the FBI's 'Most Wanted' list by NCIS but no arrest had been made and the Director of the FBI was equally pissed, and embarrassed, to have NCIS prove that one of that 'elite' number had only been guilty of grave desecration, which nobody could actually prove, and credit card fraud, not the agency's most shining moment. Now he was being told, politely but with no choice, that he and Tony were basically being sacked and/or reassigned and had to go to Salt Lake City immediately, no questions asked. Gibbs was worse than Tony at 'no questions asked', he just wasn’t capable of it, and he had to tell Dean something or the boy was likely to come searching for him, and god knows how that would end! Vance grinned, he was loving this almost as much as he was hating it, he didn’t know any more than he had told them, but they didn’t know that, yet. He wished he hadn't thought that a moment later when Tony narrowed his eyes at him.

"You can't tell us anything else because you don’t know. Boss, the Sec-Nav was here recently, he doesn’t have any more choice than we do."

Gibbs looked at his second, Sentinel and lover for a moment then nodded.

"They try and separate us, we will walk, they try and stop us, heads will roll, literally. No games Leon."  
"Oh I would have told them that Jethro, just for the fun of it! Only they specifically want both of you, this wasn’t requested, I was 'told' by Sec-Nav, while you weren't here, and I will one day figure out how you know things like that DiNozzo, that both of you were to report to Salt Lake City. Your flight leaves tomorrow morning at 09:00, and there will be a military escort waiting for you, by the name of Sheppard, apparently you can't miss him, something about his hair, I don’t know, Sec-Nav was a little vague."

Gibbs looked at Tony frowning, he really wasn’t sure about this, and he still didn’t know what he was supposed to tell Dean either. Tony shrugged, it wasn’t like they were being given a lot of choice, they no longer had jobs at NCIS, they were essentially out of work, but drafted by the Secretary of the Navy, they couldn’t really argue with that until they knew more. Tony nodded and smiled at his Guide, he would follow him anywhere, no question. Suddenly Tony's eyes flew wide open and he looked horrified.

"What do we tell Abby?"

Gibbs smirked at him, then at Vance.

"We don’t. Leon will."

Vance recoiled at the thought.

"Oh no! you can't just walk out on your friends Jethro!"  
"I wont be Leon, I'm just following orders, I have to be on a plane in less than 12 hours, gotta pack, shut up the house, Tony has to chose which of his DVD collection to take, that alone can take a week, we just don’t have time to talk to the others and still follow orders, so you'll just have to do it, as their boss, they are your people, like you keep reminding me."  
"You bastard! You never follow orders you don’t want to and you always put your people first! You know this pisses all over the Geneva Convention! I can't tell her you're both gone, she'll eat me alive!"  
"The burden of Command Leon! Like you keep telling me, they're 'your' people! Have a fun life! DiNozzo!"  
"On it Boss."

Tony barely held in the laughter as he opened the door for Gibbs, standing back to let him leave first then throwing a cheeky salute and grin at Vance before ducking out the door behind him, cutting off Vance's loud and profane rant. Once they were in the elevator Tony calmed down and Gibbs could see just how happy he wasn’t with the whole situation.

"We doin this?"  
"Yup. I'll call Abbs and Ducky in the morning, you tell Ziva and McGee. Don’t want you zoning out on me when Abbs starts screaming."  
"Thanks Boss, you're all heart."

Gibbs suddenly grinned mischievously and grabbed Tony by the back of the neck, pulling him in for a long deep and thorough kiss. When he pulled back he was smiling gently and Tony was panting for breath.

"Argh! No, you can't do that to me in public Jay! How am I supposed to walk like this? No fair."

Gibbs laughed and pulled him back in for another quick, almost chaste, kiss.

"You'll manage. Come on, we got a lot to do, and not long to do it. I wanna know what's got the Sec-Nav so quiet and insistent."  
"Yeah, sounds very 'Men in Black', should be interesting at least."  
"How did you get 'Men in Black' from this?"  
"Don’t really know, there was a smell on the Sec-Nav, like he'd spent a lot of time with someone or some place, but it's nothing I recognise. There is not a lot that I don’t recognise by now Boss, it's unsettling, to say the least."  
"Huh. We'll know tomorrow. No point worrying about it. Just keep your eyes open and we don’t let them separate us for anything until we know exactly what's going on. Not even for the head."  
"Yeah, I think I'll go with that one, something hinky is definitely going on."

They shared a look, they both knew this was going to be big, this much secrecy from so high up meant BIG and generally Big Trouble, but they would get through it like they did everything else. They went straight back to their house and started packing the essentials for a week away and shutting the house down, from what Vance had said they wouldn’t be back for a long while but they could both work with a weeks clothes, which fit in their carry on bags, they could always come back for anything else. They eventually fell into bed early in the morning for a few hours nap before getting back up for phone calls that went exactly as they expected them to. Abby, Tim and Ziva wanted all the details that nobody had and weren't happy to not get them and Ducky was calm and understanding but reminded Gibbs to keep in touch when he could. They reached the airport in plenty of time for their flight and Tony kept Gibbs in plenty of coffee until they boarded, it wasn’t a long flight so they were soon landing at Salt Lake City International. Vance was right about recognising their escort, they really couldn’t have missed him, he was about 6' tall with cheerful hazel eyes and the most insane hair Gibbs had seen on anyone serving in any military. He was also carrying a sign saying 'Boss & DiNozzo'. Tony liked him already. He spotted them at the same time they spotted him and he grinned but ducked his head and bared his throat as soon as Gibbs got close to him. Gibbs sighed as Tony chuckled and grinned at him, both of them thinking 'here we go again!'

"Sheppard?"  
"Yes Sir."  
"Don’t Sir me, I work for a living."  
"Sorry Boss."

Sheppard's head was falling steadily lower and Tony elbowed Gibbs before the poor guy passed out or wet his self at the growling.

"Don’t worry, the coffee was really bad on the flight, he'll be fine once he gets a decent cup."

Sheppard grinned at Tony, but soon went back to looking at Gibbs as they started walking toward the exit.

"Rodney's the same Boss, gotta have his coffee. If you don’t mind, the car's right out side, I have a thermos of the good stuff in there. I haven't used the cup or anything, I can get you a new one if you want though, I'm sure I can find one here somewhere, but it was cleaned properly, when I made it this morning, its good coffee, Rodney wont have the bad stuff on base, he gets real crotchety about it, not that he's unhappy, he isn't, he loves it, we all do, its just the coffee, cause we had to go without so long, and there really isn't a substitute for real coffee, especially for the scientists, like Rodney, he's the head geek, I mean scientist, the head of Sciences, all of them, he's a genius, he'll tell you that, and he is, he's saved us loads of times, we wouldn’t be here without him, we'd never have made it, and he really is a certified genius, got two PhD's and everything, but he needs his coffee, so we have the good stuff and I got some in the car, I made it fresh before I left just in case you were delayed, so its good, if you want some, you don’t have to have some, we can stop at a coffee shop if you want, some people prefer it, but I got used to Rodney's."  
"Sheppard!"  
"Sorry Boss."

Sheppard had started talking in a soft slow drawl but he was getting faster and more tense as he went on, his head dropping again as Gibbs barked at him and Gibbs sighed again, Tony chuckling as Sheppard almost fell over his own feet opening and holding the door for them, but at least they would be in the car soon. They also couldn’t have missed the car, it was a big limo, plainly used for diplomatic journeys as it was fully tricked out with all the safety features anyone could wish for, and a well turned out lieutenant as chauffer, holding the door for them. Sheppard waited for Gibbs and Tony to get in before thanking the lieutenant and following them, head still lowered as he watched Gibbs and handed him the thermos. Gibbs just stared at him once he had drank his coffee, waiting for him to do or say something, but he just sat silently, not moving a muscle, staring at Gibbs knees, head down and tipped to the side. 

John was really not sure where this was going. Gibbs was so Alpha it was almost painful, and he was willing to submit to him, had given him a gift and was still baring his throat to him, but he wouldn’t go any further until Gibbs took the offer, he couldn’t, he could only wait, not knowing if he was going to be accepted by the Alpha or rejected like he had been for most of his life. They had been sat silently in the car for almost ten minutes and John was almost ready to give up, accept that the new Alpha didn’t want him, wouldn’t accept him, but he couldn’t leave and he couldn’t lead his men if the Alpha shunned him, he was stuck between his natural instinct to run before the Alpha ran him out, and his duty and instinct to protect his mate and pack, he was damned either way, and the bloody man wasn’t even a Lycan, he was pure human, and so was his mate. At least he knew that wouldn’t be a problem. He couldn’t help it, the Alpha was still staring at him, not looking angry, just indifferent, and almost as if he was waiting for something, only John couldn’t do anything else until he was accepted or rejected, so he lowered his eyes and curled in on his self, lifting his feet onto the seat and wrapping his arms around his knees, shaking and whining sub-vocally in his distress. Tony reacted instantly as soon as he started whining, leaning forward and rubbing his leg comfortingly before swapping seats. John immediately leant in to him, practically curling into his lap as the tears fell, everything hitting him at once, he had thought he was finally settled, he had a pack, strange as they were, and a city he loved that loved him in return, and now he was going to loose it all because the Alpha didn’t like him, he would never be good enough for anyone or anything. 

"Ya know Boss, I'm pretty sure that baring his throat was kinda significant for him, and he sure as hell isn't being defiant, I don’t think he 'can' say anything right now, he's waiting for you."  
"Shit."  
"Yup, you got yourself another puppy Jay."

John actually perked up a bit at that, turning his head enough to look at Gibbs hopefully again, maybe he just hadn't been submitting in the right way, there was still hope, and they knew what he was too, so he shifted, hopped off the seat and dropped to his belly, rolling on his back at Gibbs feet and baring his throat completely, tongue lolling and tail wagging hopefully. Both of the other men gasped in shock and Tony put in into words.

"Well fuck me sideways, I didn’t mean it literally!" 

John froze at that, and realised he may have jumped the gun in shifting but it was too late to change his mind now, and Gibbs was staring at him again, but this time he had a slight hint of a smile on his face.

Gibbs stared at the white wolf laying prostrate at his feet, still in uniform, and couldn’t hold back the smile, he was beautiful, magnificent, and offering his throat, so Gibbs took it. He reached down quickly and grasped the thick furry throat, squeezing just enough to make a point, to show he was taking it seriously, then he started petting him. John whined for a moment then his tail started thumping a tattoo on the floor and he twisted his self back onto his feet and crowded his new Alpha, climbing up onto the seat and into his lap, as much as he could, licking the underside of his chin and round his throat, yipping occasionally, his tail pounding non-stop, his whole body wiggling with the strength of the wagging, his excitement more than clear.

"You piss on me and we're gonna have an issue! Calm down!"

Tony almost pissed his self laughing at that, and John pounced on him too, licking his face in his utter joy at being accepted, at finally having an Alpha, in pure relief of no longer having to try and hold it all together his self, at finally having an Alpha he could lean on, someone he could trust without reservation, someone that could take the weight of the expedition off his shoulders, and free him to be who he was supposed to be, a loyal and loving subordinate. Gibbs was chuckling at his antics while Tony was out-right laughing, roughing up his fur where he could reach it and fussing him, playing with just as much enthusiasm as John, still ignoring the ridiculous state of his clothes. The intercom crackled and Johns ears perked up as he went still, listening as the driver spoke.

"We're almost there Sir, and there are civvies around, you might wanna shift back or shed the clothes."

John shifted back, still straddling Tony's lap and grinning, shaking his body to try and resettle his completely messed up uniform.

"Thanks Ford, I'm ready, go for it."

He smiled beautifully at Tony before turning to look at Gibbs.

"Thanks Boss! You wont regret it! Never! I got the Pack ready for you, they're just waiting for you! They're good, all of them, I don’t know who else the brass are sending to us, General Hammond said something about filling the city now she's here, you're gonna love her, she'll love you! Both of you. Rodney will settle, just give him time, please Boss, he'll be fine once he gets to know you, he's just worried about us, that's all, and Ronan, he'll be fine, he doesn’t fight me, so he'll be fine once he knows you, but he was running for like, six years so it takes him a while to warm up, ya know? But he's good, and Teyla's gonna love you, the strong, silent type, she's kinda like that too, till she kicks your ass, Ronan can kick my ass too, good job he didn’t fight me really, cause he'd probably have won, he's like Conan the Barbarian, that's what Rodney calls him, Conan, cause he's so bad ass, and don’t mind Kolya, he's cool, he just acts like a crotchety old man, he's great, and Ford plays Frisbee with me and the marines, they get a kick outta it, and it's good fun and exercise, there was an accident with the volley ball, so I'm not allowed to play any more, but Teyla got us a new one so it's ok, and I paid for it, well, worked for it cause they don’t really use money as such and we don’t have any kinda currency they use anyway so we barter, or work for things, like the balls, I helped Haling with the harvest, and I caught a load of not-rabbits for him, so he was cool, cause they were eating the crops and they taste good too!"  
"Sheppard!"  
"Sorry Boss."

John cringed as Gibbs barked at him again. Gibbs shook his head and looked to Tony for a little help.

"Try and calm down, we aren't going anywhere, but we haven't been briefed yet, so we know exactly nothing except what you just told us, we need a little background, and we need to see whoever is in charge here."  
"You are."  
"Gibbs is your Alpha yes?"  
"Yes, you accepted me!"  
"Calm down, you are accepted, that wont change, but that doesn’t mean anyone else will feel the same."  
"Oh! No, I mean yeah, but no. You are the Head of Security, you're in charge until the new guy gets here, that's why you're here, and the new expedition leader is arriving today too. They wanted AFOSI, NCIS, CID or something in the city, we supply security personnel at the moment but they want more people aboard, which means more civvies as well as military, and we have people from America, England, Canada, the Czech Republic, Russia, France, Germany and loads more, they'll give you the official packet but there's someone from everywhere, and they're bringing more in. We have to have a civilian leader for the head of the expedition, because most of our people are civilians, scientists, and we need more infrastructure, civil engineers, cleaners, cooks, police, all those things you have in a city the size of Manhattan, Rodney said we could take a million people and still have room for more, but we have to sort out food first, cause they came close to starving and I can't do that again Boss, everyone was scared and hungry and sad and worried and she didn’t fix it Boss, and the Wraith were on their way and we got back in time but we didn’t know! I didn’t know they were so hungry and I'd left them and she didn’t fix it and everyone was waiting for us and we were almost too late and we had to leave the planet and everything stank of fear all the time!"  
"Breath. Come on, calm down, the car's slowing down and I can hear jack boots, so we're almost there. Come on… What is your name Sheppard? You know us but we were only told your last name, I don’t even know what rank or service you are?"

John looked at them both in shock for a moment, they knew he was a Lycan but not his first name, how much had he screwed this one? Not that they seemed to mind too much so he didn’t panic.

"Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard, USAF, CO of Atlantis, sorry Boss."  
"Lieutenant Colonel?"  
"Yes Boss, they just promoted me when we got back last week, couldn’t leave a Major in charge, and Teyla, Kolya, Ronan and the others kicked off, said they wouldn’t deal with anyone else, not after…"  
"After who John? You mentioned 'her' earlier."  
"Dr Weir Boss, she was head of the expedition when we first left. Things didn’t work so well Boss, when she found out about me, and Rodney wouldn’t leave me, but she wouldn’t listen Boss, Atlantis told us about the ZPM plant but she wouldn’t listen, so Rodney said we had to leave, and Radek wouldn’t stay behind, he was already Pack, so I tried to keep them safe, but then Teyla and the others were in the Jumpers when we got there so I had to take them too, and Kolya doesn’t like Dr Weir, so he wouldn’t treat with her, and she got angry, but we had to try and get the plant working so we could power Atlantis, she was hurting, but it took a lot longer than we thought it would, and Kolya came to help us so we got it done in the end but when we got back they were all so hungry, she had them on short rations, because she didn’t know how long they would be alone and she wouldn’t let anyone through the Gate after we left or even to the mainland. I shouldn’t have left them, they couldn’t protect their selves, and I left them. I'm sorry Boss."

Gibbs stared at him for a while, gauging everything he had said.

"Did you take all the military with you, leave civilians with no protection?"  
"No Boss, I wouldn't do that!"  
"Did you know Dr Weir was going to react like she did? Did you provoke her in any way?"  
"I let Kolya deal with me Boss, I should have stuck to my job and kept out of it."  
"That's what she said isn't it? We don’t have time to go over everything right now, but would Kolya have worked with her?"  
"Teyla talked him out of killing her, I'm sure we could have talked him into treating with her."  
"Which is a round about way of saying no, he wouldn’t have. So you did the right thing, diplomacy is a bitch, and treaties are a nightmare, compromises have to be made, and sometimes that includes who the negotiator is. We used to see it all the time in the gangs, and lately in the service too, any group of people will have their own rules, laws and traditions, whether you like them or not you have to acknowledge them and work with them. Anything else could easily have provoked an aggressive response Boss."  
"Yeah, so you did what you could. You did good John, now lets go before someone comes to find out what's keeping us."

John scrambled for the door, smiling back at Ford while they waited for the other two to leave the car. 

************  
Atlantis:

Gibbs looked around the temporary camp they had entered near the bay but Tony couldn’t take his eyes off the water. Gibbs looked at him and John started grinning.

"DiNozzo?"  
"Sorry Boss, there's something out there, this is what I could smell on the Sec-Nav, it's wrong Boss, it don’t fit!"  
"Breath DiNozzo!"  
"That's our Lady Boss, Atlantis, under cloak, I parked her in the bay, she doesn’t like dirt landings, things get damaged, she prefers the water. I know she smells funny to start with, but she's home, you'll love it once you get to know her, we all do."

Gibbs looked at Tony who was still searching the bay, trying to find any sign other than just 'wrong' to let him know what was going on. 

"Leave it Tony, you're gonna zone if you try any harder, reel it in, let it go. John, lets get on with it, he needs a distraction."

John smirked and pointedly eyed Gibbs then Tony's crotch, waggling his eyebrows. Gibbs slapped him upside the head. John reacted immediately, ducking out of the way to avoid it, then stopped his self and let it land, grinning at Gibbs with his head down and tilted.

"Sorry Boss."

Gibbs shook his head again and glared at Tony for his grin.

"Colonel O'Neill is in charge here at the moment but I haven't seen him yet, he's been in Washington and Colorado so far but I was told he would be here to meet, and brief, you."

John reached up and tapped his ear piece. 

"Sheppard to McKay, we're back buddy, any idea where the Colonel is?"  
"John! Thank god you're back! Get your scrawny ass in here and deal with Ronan now! He's gone psycho!"  
"What? Where is he? Boss, Jumper, I'm gonna uncloak it now, don’t freak! Rodney, where is he?"

John thought the Jumper visible and ran straight inside, closing the back as soon as he felt Gibbs and Tony were inside with him, taking off as soon as his hands hit the control sticks, flying as fast as he could and cloaking her before they were a foot off the ground, completely forgetting about Ford.

"He's on the west pier, O'Neill and his group landed out there, Ronan was with the welcoming committee, don’t ask me why I thought that would be a good idea, and he went mental as soon as the ramp started dropping, he shifted and threw his self at the door! They closed it before he could get them but he wont shift back to explain what's wrong! They flew to the jumper bay and came in, they're waiting in the office above the control room."

John sighed and hung his head for a moment before heading for the Jumper bay and landing quickly, Gibbs and Tony following him to the Colonel.

Under different circumstances Gibbs would have laughed. Tony and John both jumped in front of him as soon as the door started opening, both growling, and John shifted, shaking his clothes off, hackles raised and teeth bared at the Colonel in front of him. As it was, he growled at them.

"DiNozzo! Sheppard! Stand down!" 

Tony turned to glance at him quickly but John just shifted closer, so he was leaning on him, he didn’t want to ignore an order but this was too important, the danger was too great. Tony did manage to speak.

"I don’t know what the hell they are Boss, but they aren't alive!"  
"Report!"  
"No heart beat, no breathing, no sound of life at all! And they smell funky!"

Gibbs looked at the Colonel who was watching them all with the slightest hint of a grin.

"I got called into my boss's office after a shitty case last night and told I no longer had a job, because the Sec-Nav 'requested' our presence here today. So far I've met a wolf, flown in an invisible ship straight out of one of DiNozzo's Sci-Fi movies and landed in an invisible city, to have my Sentinel and wolf strenuously object to you. This is not what I consider a good day, and because I am no longer a federal agent I'm currently not legal to carry a weapon, that just pisses me off, now would be a good time for you to start filling in the blanks."  
"I'm Colonel Jack O'Neill, this is Dr Daniel Jackson and Second Lieutenant Alexander Harris. You wont find any signs of life because we aren't, haven't been for a while now, had a bit of an incident just after I met Major Sheppard last time, kinda died, kinda came back a vampire. But I did not realise the good Major, Lieutenant Colonel sorry, was a Lycan. Glad I knew about them before hand, probably would have shot your man Ronan otherwise, and that would have been a real bitch, cause I think I'm gonna like him from everything I've heard. Honestly didn’t expect the reception though, and I have no idea what a Sentinel is."  
"The Sentinel is mine, and that's all you need to know right now. My day just took a turn for the Twilight Zone and I still have shit to deal with. Sheppard said I was bought in to take charge of security of an entire city, that makes less sense than Lycans and vampires and invisible cities that are currently talking to me in my head. Sheppard, I want you human right now! Shift and talk to me!" 

John very reluctantly shifted, smoothly gliding back to his feet as he did so, then looked back over Gibbs shoulder as they all heard claws scraping on the floor and immediately shifted back, jumping right over Gibbs head and landing behind him, head down and teeth bared again as a huge black wolf came barrelling round the corner, comically scrabbling to a stop as he saw John. As soon as the Black wolf stopped and stood still John stepped forward to rub their heads together for a moment before pulling back and shifting back to his feet.

"With me Chewie, he's safe, come meet the new Boss, don’t wanna give him a bad impression."

The black wolf looked at everyone else in the corridor for just a moment before he shimmered and stood in front of John. Ronan was a very visually impressive man, at 6'4" with long dark brown dreadlocks and deep soulful brown eyes he would stand out in almost any crowd, but naked everyone could see every single muscle clearly defined with not an ounce of spare flesh on him, John was a good looking and well defined man with the lithe, spare muscles of a swimmer, but Ronan was a runner, and it showed in every muscle. The tension was broken when Rodney came hurtling round the corner.

"Oh for god's sake cover it up! We all know we're inadequate, there's no need to rub it in!"

John and Ronan both hung their heads for a moment before looking at each other and grinning before turning on Rodney and plastering their selves all over him, rubbing their heads against him as much as possible.

"But Rodney! You know we love you!"  
"Enough! Yes, you're both adorable, now quit the shit and explain what the hell you thought you were doing! Like it's not bad enough you go mental and throw yourself at a Jumper, no, you ignore ME! Explain!"

Ronan dropped his head at that and some how managed to make his self small enough to rub his head under Rodney's chin, whining for forgiveness. Rodney heaved a huge, put upon sigh and patted his head. 

"Yes, yes, I forgive you this time, you do it again and you'll be sleeping in your own room for a month!"

Both wolves whined at that, Ronan dropping to his knees and plastering his self against Rodney's legs at the obviously not idle threat.

"Huh, just remember that next time you decide to ignore me. Now explain in English."  
"The Colonel is a vampire now."  
"Well, that was succinct. I thought you looked better but I figured you'd done something with your hair. What about you Dr Jackson? I take it you and the baby grunt are the same?"

Everyone looked at Rodney for a while after that before Daniel shook his head in disbelief.

"You don’t change, do you Rodney? Yes, Xander and I are Vampires too."  
"Right. Why would I want to change? You still make no sense. Why is everyone in the corridor? Can we get on with it please? I have too much to do as it is, I don’t have time for this messing about, especially with Stark here. Do you believe they dumped over a dozen idiots on me? Every one of them went straight for the lemming switch! Why does nobody teach people to wait and investigate before they start touching? Every one of them would be dead by now if I'd left them unsupervised in the city, and probably us with them! Why does nobody listen to me? Genius here! Two PhD's! there is a reason I am in charge around here!"

At that even John realised he might have gone too far so he tried to shut him up.

"Rodney?"  
"And don’t get me started on the level of education now!"  
"Rodney?"  
"Do they hand out degrees with the cereal?"  
"Rodney!"  
"Because they have no brains…"

John gave up trying to get Rodney's attention verbally and went straight to the guaranteed winner, grabbed his face in both hands and shoved his tongue down his throat. Ronan thought that was a great idea and rubbed his head over Rodney's crotch, just because he could. Neither of them considered what kind of show they were putting on for everyone else, two well built, naked, men wrapped around a third and doing their best impression of the start of a great porno, not that anyone was complaining, to be fair, it was a beautiful show, but not really work appropriate, especially from the head of Science and the military CO. Tony hummed in appreciation and Gibbs head slapped him for being so obvious in front of others.

"Gentlemen!"

Gibbs spoke quietly but all three of them froze immediately before cringing as they realised what they had been doing. John and Ronan shimmered and dropped to their bellies, crawling to Gibbs feet, whining piteously and literally licking his boots, begging his forgiveness. Rodney glared at them.

"Oh you bloody cowards! Stand up and face it like a man! I can still buy a kennel you know!"

Both of them ignored his ranting until Gibbs had petted them both to show they were forgiven, then they turned on him. As soon as he realised they were both looking at him he started shaking his head.

"No! Don’t you dare! Both of you! SIT! Stay! Don’t you dare! You will both be sleeping on the floor for the rest of your lives!"

Rodney was backing up the whole time as they both stalked him, heads down, tails out straight behind them, slowly prowling towards him, completely synchronised, giving an unintentional show of just how well they could work together, it was lost on nobody. Rodney was still berating them though, and still backing up away from them, knowing it was useless to run but not ok with being pinned and licked half to death again, especially not in front of this lot! Both wolves jumped at him at the same time and he squeaked in anticipation but they landed just short of him, coming to a standstill and gazing up at him adoringly. He looked back down at them, trying to hold out and stay mad but he just couldn’t do it. In less than a minute he dropped to his knees and threw his arms around their necks, pulling them both in to a huge hug, petting and ruffling their fur, muttering nonsense at them as they reconnected. 

"Yeah, yeah, I love you too ya stupid mutts, should have stuck with cats, much easier than you two. What am I gonna do with you?"

Gibbs shook his head at the three of them, wondering just how much weirder his day could get, he was betting plenty weirder! And he wasn’t wrong.

***************

Jack looked around the conference room table at the gathered personnel. Daniel and Xander were sat either side of him, a little further around the table were McKay, Sheppard, and Ronan, and on his other side sat Gibbs and DiNozzo. Jack really couldn’t believe how well the NCIS agents were taking everything, after the initial confrontation when they had met the men had been quiet, observant but showed no fear or shock, they were either bullet proof or really good at poker. McKay was defensive still, but that was understandable, and both Sheppard and Ronan were watching Gibbs every move. Jack smiled.

"Well, now I'm twice as sure I picked the right man for your new XO, I've been told you guys do best with a big pack. Major Lorne will be joining us soon, he's worked in the SGC for years now, he's a good man and a damn good airman, and he's a Lycan, a beta, like you guys I take it from the looks you're giving Gibbs."  
"Yes Sir."  
"Good, shouldn’t be any problems then. We've kinda been putting together our own little pack at the SGC but we can't be as, considerate, here on Earth as you can in Pegasus. I've read all the reports, from everyone, and before you start McKay, it's easy to see where the problem was, and it wasn’t anyone here, or you wouldn’t be here. I've had a lot of unofficial reports from the guys under you too, I know a lot of them personally, and if I didn’t like you I'd be jealous, there is nobody on this city, that counts, that doesn’t think the sun rises outta your ass kiddo, you've done a hell of a job for a Major with a bogus black mark, and I made sure to send a fruit basket to the dick that got it on your record, with a personal note thanking him for sending you our way, let him know you were promoted and running your own, highly classified and extremely important, base and in line for an early promotion to full bird, probably within the year! Apparently the look on his face was priceless, I thought about getting them to take photos but decided it would be a little too unprofessional, unfortunately. So, Lorne is your new XO, I know Ford has done the job as well as he could but even if I could swing him an early promotion he just doesn’t have enough time in, or experience, to remain XO. Your paperwork alone shows me you 'need' someone like Lorne, even if nothing else did. So you will have Lorne, there are also Don and Charlie Epps to join your new police force, Don is FBI and Charlie is a Math genius, between them they have revolutionised crime detection and solving, ask them about it, if you have a few hours spare. With them you get Colonel Telford, he's been under cover as a sniper for the FBI, we can't separate them, it's like trying to kick a puppy, no pun intended, when you argue with Charlie, he's worse than these two!"

Jack pointed his thumbs at Daniel and Xander and they both elbowed him. He chuckled and continued before he could be interrupted again.

"The five of you should be enough to keep each other healthy and sane, ish."  
"What!?! Three more mutts? But our rooms aren't big enough! They wont fit in the bed! Where do I put them all?"

Everyone stared at him for a moment, except Ronan who was wondering the same thing and John, who was trying to become one with the floor to escape the situation, before Jack shook his head in disbelief at how honest Rodney was and continued.

"Don't ask me, I'm sure a genius like you can figure it out. And if we find any more playmates for you we'll be sure to send them on over. Unfortunately I don’t have time to dwell on this, so you can all think things over and come find me later if you have any questions or concerns, and I'll get Danny to sort it for you. In the mean time, Gibbs. The short version. The city you are sat in is Atlantis, yes that one, and yes she is the one talking to you in your head, she needs a police force, one that can handle civilian and military with equal ease, and deal with multiple nationalities as well as aliens. The IOA agree unanimously on two things, that this city has to be an international civilian endeavour with non-Military security, and that they need a hell of a crime detection and solving team, I don’t know how else to say it so you don’t come off sounding like a bunch of nuts in spandex. The last civilian leader, well, turns out there's a real good reason we do heavy psych evals on all our personnel, shame the IOA didn’t. The President asked pretty much everyone for civilians that were bullet proof, strong willed, open minded, tolerant, could herd cats and pull miracles out of their ass, and the best of the same in law enforcement. Only two names came up several times, yours and an English guy he wants running the joint, so he passed them to me. He didn’t give me a choice, so you don’t get one either!"

Gibbs raised his eyebrow at Jacks overly cheerful proclamation, and shared a look with Tony. Tony nodded, Jack was telling the truth as far as he knew it, so they stayed quiet and let him carry on. Jack smiled at them again and carried on.

"So, you get the really fun and exciting job of policing this city, you have a while to get settled in, we have to fill her with as many people as we can spare and as much food and ammo as we can get hold of, and she will be making a few stops around the planet for pick ups, but then she will be shipping back to Pegasus."

Jack paused for a moment and looked at Daniel and Xander before he carried on.

"That's the official version, now for the reason I agreed to pull you into this, the real one not just because the President said so, is because I know your reputation, we have some mutual friends, and I know some people have been taking a little too much interest in you two lately. On a side note I would love an intro to the Winchesters. I know Ducky, and if I can get you two on board I might just be able to sway the old coot into coming too. He will love Atlantis, just as much as I do, and anything I can do for him will never be enough, but I know he would never leave you guys. If you need, or want, anyone else I 'will' swing it for you, you are going to have a whole city to police, and DiNozzo will be your second no questions asked, this is an entire city, and I need a dedicated security force I can rely on. This last year has been lucky, in so far as personal disputes go, but with so many more people being brought in there are bound to be problems. Not only are you well respected Agents, but you also have years of experience as a police officer, DiNozzo, and military, Gibbs, behind you, that make you a perfect fit, being partners is just the icing on the cake. Give me your first question Gibbs."

Jack looked him square in the eye and waited while Gibbs thought for a moment.

"Who do I answer to?"  
"Officially the IOA and the new boss, in reality, your people and possibly your new boss, on paper you are joint second in command of the City along with Sheppard, but as far as the IOA are concerned, baring a major disaster, a civilian will always remain in charge. I wont lie to you Gibbs, Sheppard, I don’t know the new guy, but Atlantis is not going to remain an outpost for ever. The way the IOA is screwing the pooch, not for long at all. The SGC was started, kinda, in response to a threat, one hell of a threat called the Goa'uld, and we've got them on the ropes for the first time, with a hell of a lot of help from some new friends. Atlantis isn't so lucky, and our friends have no sway in Pegasus, there is literally nothing they can do to help you, not directly, once you are out there, so we are doing what we can here and indirectly. Yeah, I'm telling you a hell of a lot that can never be repeated in this galaxy, but if you aren't comfortable, if you don’t agree with us by the time we've finished, you'll never remember this meeting anyway, so it really doesn’t matter. The point is, this is a precarious situation that needs finesse and a delicate hand, and sometimes a mallet, and I think that is you Gibbs, and so do our friends. So I want you to know from the outset that this could be a one way trip sometime soon, you may have to break contact with Earth, you may have to declare independence, without any movie references! So I need you to think about that before you agree to this and keep it in mind while you pack if you do. You might need to be self sufficient sooner rather than later. If you do agree to this, I only ask you one thing, when you do cut ties, give my people chance to come through first. I have a lot of dedicated people that live for this job, and a lot of them would rather die than loose it, so give us a chance to join you before we loose you ok? Don’t give up on us because the brass are full of shit."

Gibbs shared a long look with Tony again before they both nodded and Tony spoke.

"People first, if we come we choose our team and a few others get the option too, I'll write you a list. Before we agree to anything Gibbs and I will be talking to any and all Pegasus natives that are currently here, and I want all the reports, full access to everything that relates to missions or personnel, I don’t care about anything scientific or technological, though we know some people that could probably help if you want it, but everything that tells me who your people are, I need all of that."  
"That’s fine, McKay can give you access to the files here."  
"If Lantis agrees!"

Almost everyone looked shocked at Rodney's belligerent tone, and Jack sighed in exasperation, he was pretty sure he knew where this was going.

"Pardon?"  
"You heard me O'Neill, I can't make her do anything. And if they start second guessing John she'll kick them out, she wont have it, and nor will I. Waltzing in and making demands all over the place, you can't push us all around just cause the mutts roll over for you."  
"Rodney! Alpha!"  
"Yes John! I know! You made it blatantly clear, throwing your selves at him like that, which is why I wont be! Someone has to watch your back when you can't."

John looked at Rodney in stunned silence for a long time before a sweet smile spread across his face, he ducked his head as the tips of his ears blushed for the first time in at least thirty years! Gibbs was just watching them both silently, waiting for Tony, who chuckled quietly before talking.

"That is exactly what I needed to know Dr McKay. I'm a Sentinel, which means all five of my senses are off the charts and I can control every aspect of them, I know who is sleeping with whom, who is lusting after whom, who had coffee yesterday. What I can't sense is why, so for that I use my head, my training and experience, but for that I need information. If I know you three are sleeping together and one of you gets pissy tomorrow, I know who to ask about it first. But you work with dozens of people and your scent is everywhere I have been in this city so far, so if I smell you at a crime scene I have to be able to eliminate you as fast as possible so I can do my job."  
"Or you could just use the security cameras."  
"What cameras?"

Rodney actually had the good grace to look a little sheepish at that.

"Ah, yes, well, we hadn't gotten around to telling anyone yet, there are cameras everywhere in Lantis and Tia, and I mean 'everywhere'! The Ancients had no concept of privacy! I mean, the bathrooms? Not that it wasn’t worth watching but that was 'my' bathroom, I don’t want anyone else seeing that feed, or any of my rooms, really, I could probably make another fortune from it but there have to be some limits I suppose."  
"Rodney!"  
"Yes, yes, don’t get your knickers in a twist, I have more money than I can use already, especially when it's all on Earth and I'm not. Talking of which, can we do something about that? I don’t know, by gold or gems or something we can use in Pegasus, you may be a destitute pilot but I have money, and some of the other scientists."

Jack looked between Rodney and John who was shaking his head in disbelief, then frowned.

"Destitute? How is Patrick Sheppard's son destitute? And I know what he gets paid!"

John sank into his chair and Jack realised he may have just put his foot in something unfortunate. Rodney looked around at John slowly, blinked a few times and spoke very quietly.

"Patrick Sheppard's son? 'The' Patrick Sheppard, utilities mogul Patrick Sheppard? That one? The one worth billions whose youngest son is in the process of taking over the family business, the one whose eldest son is never spoken of?"  
"Didn’t think Dave would get a look in until the old man snuffed it. Don’t get excited, he cut me out of his will when I joined up, Dave gets the lot."  
"Your dad's a multi billionaire and you're penniless?"  
"I never said that, I get a good wage from the Air Force, especially now I'm on LC combat pay, and Mom left us half each of hers when she passed."  
"Just how much do you have Sheppard?"

John looked more than a little uncomfortable by then and Tony decided to step.

"Dr McKay, I don’t think this is really the venue for a discussion about personal finances. Any money he has would have been declared to the Air Force when he joined, all branches are careful about things like that so they can check on 'unauthorised' money, it helps us investigate when things go wrong. I'm sure John will tell you all about it later, when you aren't in a meeting with his boss and your new Head of Security."  
"What's that got to do with anything? I don’t care whose boss is here! Why did I not know you were one of 'those' Sheppard's?"  
"That’s exactly why! Because its always 'those Sheppard's'! I skipped Stanford to join up at seventeen and got told I was dead to him! He didn’t even do anything when they killed my mom! I am NOT one of 'those Sheppard's'!"

John shifted as soon as he realised what he had just said and shook his clothes off before crawling under the table and hiding under Gibbs chair. It would have been funny in any other circumstances, seeing the huge wolf wrapping his self around Gibbs feet and burying his head under his own tail, but it was just worrying, especially as Rodney really didn’t get where he had gone wrong.

"What? What? Why are you hiding? Come back here you moron, do not make me sit on the floor! You know it does my back no good, so come back here. John? John?"  
"Doc, give him a minute yeah?"  
"Ronan, explain!"  
"Ya just made him feel, in public."  
"Oh for! Really? That's your problem you lunatic? You two pinned me down in a corridor in front of 'everybody' and almost made me pee myself laughing!"  
"Ya hurt him Doc."  
"No! No! We don’t hurt each other! That's not allowed, everyone else does that enough, we don’t do it to each other, that's the rule. Come here you moron, I don’t care who your sperm donor was, get over here."

John slowly unwound from around Gibbs feet and crept back to Rodney. Rodney sighed deeply, sounding very put out, and slid from his chair to the floor so John could crawl into his lap, as much as a huge wolf could anyway. Rodney wrapped his arms around him and buried his face in his scruff, hugging him tight.

"You bloody moron, like we don’t have enough problems without you taking me seriously, why now? You never let shit like that get to you, so why now? What's really wrong sweetheart?"

Only Ronan had ever heard Rodney speak like this before, everyone else, especially those that thought they knew him, were left speechless, which was a good thing as it let John, curled on Rodney's lap under the table out of sight, forget they were there for a while and he shifted back.

"Too many Rodney, there's just too many."  
"Hey, you can do anything. And now you have me and Ro, and some new mutts to play with too. And you don’t have to be in charge any more, you have an Alpha now, you can relax, and we're on Earth for a bit, so you can de-compress and get used to your new playmates, and your Alpha, he seems ok, bit old, but I wouldn’t complain, and his mate's hot, I could watch them fuck you."

There would have been a resounding gasp from everyone in the room, except Ronan who was nodding along in perfect, unconcerned agreement, only they were all well trained professionals, used to hiding everything they thought and felt, so there was a resounding silence instead. Until John whimpered. 

"…"  
"Ah baby, don’t. Ro, what are you waiting for?"

Ronan shifted and shook his clothes off like John had earlier and wrapped his self around as much of John as he could, whining and licking him comfortingly, helping the best he could. 

Then Gibbs shocked everyone but Tony. 

Gibbs stood up and took the few steps to the three men, crouching down next to John, putting a hand on his shoulder and leaning down to speak so quietly no 'normal' human would have been able to overhear him except Rodney.

"Tony is my Mate. You are my second. You are Primus. You have done your job well, and you will continue to do so."

Then he spoke a little louder, just enough to make sure everyone understood.

"Anyone touches Tony, I will annihilate whatever pieces he leaves them in. And we know how to get away with it."

Rodney looked a little stunned at such possessiveness. 

"Aggressive much? If you don’t want to share a simple no would suffice! You do know the Pack fuck like bunnies right? Good job I'm not the jealous, possessive type! These two were all over each other like a rash as soon as they met! Is this going to screw up the Pack dynamics? Can you even 'be' their Alpha if you don’t fuck them?"  
"Rodney!"  
"It's a fair question Dr Jackson, and something we will look into. Hopefully it wont be a problem because we are very exclusive and very adamant about staying that way, there will be no fucking around or sharing. However, I don’t see it being a problem as neither John nor Ronan have shown any interest so far, and I imagine that would have been the first thing on offer, not coffee, if it was on the books at all."

Jack was grinning and shaking his head at the lot of them.

"You guys have a lot to learn. The Alpha pair are exclusive, and usually the only ones to breed. Sheppard isn't unusual for a beta, most of them are completely gay, it's a biological imperative. It'd be weird for him to like women, which is why I wondered about the whole married thing."  
"That's all very well and good but I want to get him to our rooms and I have work to do even if you lot don’t! God alone knows where they have got too by now!"

Rodney tapped the radio in his ear.

"McKay to Zelenka, Radek, have you found Stark and his bunch yet?"  
"Yes Rodney, I found the group of strangers you left, unsupervised! In lab with open computer access!"  
"Oh they're fine, quit bitching, get them all to the command conference room, now."

With that Rodney tapped his radio again shutting it off without giving Radek a chance to argue. Gibbs looked at him carefully. 

"Stark?"  
"Yes, Tony Stark, you know the one?"  
"Yeah, I do. He have anyone called Dean or Bruce with him?"

Rodney looked at Gibbs suspiciously.

"Why? And why do you know the minion?"  
"Dean is a friend. And if the boy's here then Bruce is, who else did they bring?"  
"Some Captain Stark is shagging, I don’t know."  
"Rodney!"

John finally looked up and joined the conversation.

"You can't introduce Captain America as 'some Captain Stark is shagging'! Gods!!! Why do I put up with you?"  
"Because you love me, why else would anyone put up with me?"

John cocked his head and smiled gently as his lover spoke matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, I do."  
"And he fucks like a God."

Ronan shifted back and decided to add that little gem to the conversation. Rodney preened.

"Yes, yes I do, thank you for noticing."

By that point Xander had had enough, he couldn’t take any more, so he cracked up, literally falling off his chair laughing, gasping for air as he tried to breath enough to talk and laugh at the same time, it was not going well.

"Oh my God! Can we keep them? Please say we can keep them?"

Rodney looked at him, obviously confused.

"Why do people keep saying that? You're the second person today, what is with that? Do I look like a pet? And while I may be happy sharing with the Pack you aren't one of us, keep your eyes off."  
"I thought you weren't the jealous possessive type?"  
"Hello? I'm not! These two on the other hand will cheerfully rip apart any outsider that looks at the Pack wrong, and that includes coveting. It's a Lycan thing, that one I do know, Pack all play together, and no outsiders, those are the only two rules there are about sex."  
"Lycans and Vampires have a lot in common, especially when it comes to family, we feel exactly the same about the clan."

Jack nodded as Daniel spoke.

"And talking of which, who exactly do you guys see as Pack?"  
"Everyone."  
"Rodney, I hardly even know most of the expedition!"  
"Bull! You know every person that went with us by sight and smell, even if you don’t know their names, you would fight and die for all of them and you wouldn’t turn down any one of the men if they asked, especially your marines."  
"He's not wrong."

John looked at Rodney and Ronan, thought about it for a while, pictured any one of his marines asking, tried to picture turning them down and grinned sheepishly.

"Yeah, ok, definitely my marines."  
"So how are you two going to react if they get reassigned?"  
"No! My men!"

John's response was pretty much what Tony had expected, and Ronan's growl kinda said it all. Jack sighed.

"This could get messy. At least we only claim those we turn, damn, if we claimed everyone we fought with we'd have half the US military by now. What about the civilians?"  
"He's not so bad with those, except Radek and Carson, try anything with them and you'll probably have an apocalypse on your hands, but the others he didn’t have much to do with, other than Grodin, Chuck, Kusanagi and some of the medical staff."  
"Right, I can't make anyone stay if they want to leave, but I can make sure no one is reassigned without a choice."

Everyone was watching Jack or John until the door was barged open and a dark haired man with a Van Dyke strode in like he owned the place. It didn’t take anyone more than a moment to recognise him.

"I said I would knock and you wait!"  
"Well, yeah, 'you' said that, I just ignored you, cause it's quicker my way, see, we're already here, instead of waiting outside still!"  
"You are not funny man! You are bad as Rodney! You deal with him, I wash hands!"

Radek threw his hands in the air in defeat and turned back to the door. John shifted and padded over to him, rubbing his head against him just as Dean walked through the door. Gibbs smiled for a moment and stood up to greet him but paused as Dean stopped dead and stared from John to Ronan then Jack, Daniel and Xander, his entire body going stiff for a moment before dropping into a defensive slouch, ready for almost anything.

"Ya know, there's a lot of non-humans around here, now I can be open minded, but I would love a little reassurance here Gibbs, cause my hands are itchin'."  
"How the hell do you know they aren't human?"  
"I grew up with this shit, you don’t recognise the sons of bitches, they eat your brother, or you, so you learn quick. So what's going on?"

Gibbs sighed and walked over to Dean.

"Hand over your weapons, all of them. Now."

Dean frowned but couldn’t argue with Gibbs if his life depended on it, so he started pulling knives and guns off his person, leaving everyone that didn’t know him impressed that he had managed to hide them all. Once he was done Gibbs looked him straight in the eyes and growled before he spoke.

"You will kill nobody here, do you understand? Nobody in this room is a threat, we are all on the same side and I trust them, understood?"

Dean took a deep breath and slumped properly, relaxing into his usual slouch now he had Gibbs reassurance. Then he smiled as Bruce slouched into the room and straight up to him, putting an arm around his waist and pulling him in. Dean leant in to his lovers side, burying his nose in his neck for a moment, which looked quite weird with the height difference, while Gibbs and Bruce nodded to each other before Gibbs introduced everyone. 

"Gentlemen, Colonel O'Neill, Dr Jackson, Lieutenant Harris, Dr Zelenka, Dr McKay, Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard, Ronan Dex, may I introduce Captain Rogers, Dr Stark, Dr Banner and Dr Winchester."  
"Winchester? Dean Winchester?"  
"Yes Sir."  
"Doctor?"  
"He earned it. He apprenticed with me, probably the shortest in history, but he just needed the opportunity to prove what he already knew. Now he has doctorates in Applied Mathematics and Electrical Engineering."  
"I wasn’t surprised, I've read his file, I was expressing how impressed I am at the speed, last year he was on the FBI's most wanted wall, now he has two doctorates! Colour me fully impressed! Want a job?"

Dean ducked his head and blushed lightly as Jack grinned at him, leaning in to Bruce as much as he could. Bruce smiled proudly, and answered for him.

"Thanks but no thanks. That's the second offer he's had today, and you really can't get away with us sharing a room, or at least acknowledging it, and we don’t hide. And you can't beat Tony's benefits package either, he has more money than the President, and makes cooler toys. Dean will be staying with me. We would be more than happy to offer any help we can in an advisory capacity though, all of us."

Jack couldn’t help smiling at all of them.

"That is greatly appreciated gentlemen, thank you. I'm sure the new head of the Expedition will be just as grateful as we are."  
"Talking of which, Chuck just let me know they've arrived, Markham is bringing them here now."  
"Now? Rodney! I'm not even dressed for god's sake! Stall em!"  
"How? And who cares? You two can't keep your clothes on for five minutes, they're gonna see it all soon enough."  
"I CAN NOT meet the head of this expedition NAKED!"

According to Murphy's Law, also known as Sod's Law, if something can go wrong, it probably will, in the worst and most embarrassing manner, and at the worst possible time. Just to prove this Law, the door opened at exactly the moment John was shouting the word 'naked', just to prove that the universe didn’t, in fact, hate him, it wasn’t actually his new boss, it was his new XO and the FBI contingent. John did not see this distinction as such a good thing at the time, though Rodney was careful to point out to him later that it could have been SO much worse. Lorne on the other hand thought it was funny as hell.

"Probably best not, to be fair, most CO's aren't as appreciative as they could be, and those that are don’t respect you in the morning. Major Evan Lorne reporting for duty Sir, with former Special Agent Don Epps, his brother Dr Charlie Epps and Colonel David Telford."

Jack was smirking at Evan, he had known him for years and loved his sense of the ridiculous, it was a great match for his own, and he generally had impeccable timing.

"Thank you Lorne, as the new guy will be here in a moment I'll leave intro's till he gets here, but I think all you Lycans should meet up later."  
"With Special Agent Gibbs, I take it?"  
"What is it that gets you lot so hot on him? I mean, yeah, he's hot, but really? This whole bowing down thing is a bit much."  
"It's instinct. There aren't many Alpha's out there, and even less Alpha Lycans, so when you find one, you do your best. Most Lycans remain in their family groups for life, so for those that can't it's hard. I'm lucky, I had the support of a huge Pack growing up, I chose to join the Air Force because I had to fly, and my Pack has supported me throughout my career, and I know I will always have a place with them if I need it, but they understand I'm finding a new pack, and they are willing to do anything they can to help us establish our selves if we need them, because they know not everybody is so lucky. And I think the new boss is here, unless you have other Lycans in the city?"

Lorne quickly moved further into the room with the other three, Don and Charlie shifting as they moved, David pulled his 9mm as his lovers shifted but didn’t raise it. Everyone else had risen at the possible threat and were tense. 

"No, we don’t, and I don’t know their scent."

John was practically growling by then, and once he had shifted he did, Ronan and Lorne following him, forming a wall of muscle and fur between the door and their people. Two deep growls came from the corridor followed by a very put-upon sigh and a dry, upper class English voice.

"Really? Are you mongrels so desperate to fight you just can't keep your trousers on? You couldn’t have at least looked at them before you decided to fight? I should have bought leads for the both of you. I could have left you at home you do realise?"  
"You know they worry James, and they know nobody will get chance to hurt us in such close quarters. So they will behave, and they will walk in there like the well behaved professionals they are, because there is no danger here."  
"Why thank you Mr Pendragon, I couldn’t possibly have made them behave without your wonderful words of wisdom. Now could we possibly get on with it instead of standing in the corridor like a bunch of complete pillocks?"

Jack had moved around the table to greet the group as soon as he realised exactly who it was. It might have been a little easier on everyone's nerves if he had had a chance to meet them before they came to Atlantis, unfortunately he hadn't, so he didn’t know before hand that Sir James Lester was as alive as he was, only a damn sight older. Daniel and Xander realised at the same time and were flanking him faster then he could think it, the five wolves picking up on their tension, adding to an already tense situation, and the shit was poised to hit the fan in the worst possible way, the slightest spark and it was going to hell. Then they walked in through the door, two beautiful wolves in front, closely followed by Sir James, flanked by two taller young men, all three of whom stopped as soon as they saw Jack. Then Sir James spoke.

"Well, this is a fine balls up. Nobody could have mentioned we were putting on a production of 'The Monster Mash'?"

Xander and Dean both cracked up. The wording, the timing, the bone dry delivery, it was all perfect and they couldn’t help their selves. Which was a good thing, because it shattered the tension and everyone took a deep breath, which saved an international incident and what could have been the end of the adventure before it had even begun. Jack took a deep breath and swallowed down the impulse to attack the vampire in 'his' territory, reminding his self that though he was there first, it was technically Sir James territory.

"Sir James Lester I take it?"  
"Colonel O'Neill?"  
"That would be me, yeah."  
"Didn’t know the yanks let us in their military."  
"I was already in. Had a bit of an incident last year."  
"Yes, well, Her Majesty didn’t entirely approve my own change of circumstances, though it was considerably longer ago. She wasn’t overly pleased with me for accepting this invitation either, we seem to have a habit of disagreeing. I take it Lt Colonel Sheppard is here somewhere?"  
"Yup, he'd be the white one, makes him easy to spot in most places, black one's Ronan, and this is Major Lorne, the others are new to me."  
"Major Ryan, and Captain Becker, and they will be proving they are capable of manners in just a moment, or they will be going home. May I introduce the Mr's Pendragon, and Professor Cutter and Mr Hart will be with us soon."  
"Well, they aren't brothers. You do realise that means almost the entire command staff of the operation are 'an abomination'."

Rodney put in the hand gestures and falsetto just to make sure he got his point across.

"Bent as a three bob note you mean? Or just non-human? And does anyone have a problem with that?"

It wouldn’t take anyone long to get used to Lester's dry and scathing sarcasm but for the time being it was a little strange, though Dean was pretty sure he was in love with this place, between Lester and Rodney his own sense of humour was looking quite 'normal'.

"Not anyone here, no, but generally speaking the US military don’t approve, repeal or no we still have fraternisation reg's. At the SGC we really couldn’t care less, General Hammond has never cared and considering the people we meet through the Gate we have to be open minded, the JCS accepted that a long time ago, then I got dead last year and a lot had to change, unofficially, because I wasn’t leaving Daniel and Sire, Spike and Xan were a little 'in your face' with the whole PDA thing, and we need shared quarters on base, we're young, apparently it's perfectly normal to need to be close, even if you were a USAF Colonel before you croaked. Why did you guys think they caved so quickly with Sheppard? They were faced with basically the same thing last year, deal with it or start a war you can't hope to win, because we all know too much, and they can't kill us, sorry, we can't have an 'accident' without pissing off too many of the wrong people. They wouldn’t even have told 'me' you were furry if it weren't for the reports you sent through, they wont acknowledge it any more than me being dead, they can't, but they can't get rid of us so they ignore our 'issues' and go on as normal."  
"So nobody is getting sacked but don’t invite the brass to the wedding?"  
"Pretty much. So how about you lot get on with your own introductions, then you can get back to two legs."

Jack looked down at the wolves practically filling the room, the smallest was backed into a corner behind an almost identical wolf, being protected and looking ok with that, and Jack was pretty sure it was Charlie, the only omega in the group, but the rest were still facing off, though not quite as aggressively as before. Once he had spoken the two wolves with Lester stepped forward, with Ryan slightly in the lead, not quite aggressive but certainly trying for a show of dominance. Gibbs actually grinned at Tony who just shook his head, this was about to get loud.

"You don’t wanna do that. Their 'introduction' is gonna be bloody, they have to figure out their pack standing or this will go bad real quick."  
"I though you were the Alpha here?"  
"Oh I am, that aint gonna change, but they need to sort this out for their selves, just cause I'm in charge don’t mean they don’t have a hierarchy. Not so different to the military, they may be equals but some are a little bit more equal than others."  
"Huh, I thought, never mind, obviously I was wrong. So, the Prometheus is in Geo-synchronous orbit, I can get them to beam everyone to the pier. I love being in charge, it's so much fun! O'Neill to Prometheus, lock on to the room I'm in and beam everyone directly to."  
"The officer's gym."

Jack raised his eyebrow at Rodney for interrupting but they were re-materialising in the gym before he could say anything.

"Really?"  
"Well yeah! Surrounded by idiots! If they go outside 'everyone' can see them! That'll look great wont it? I'm sure the guys that just survived the year of hell with us will be totally receptive to outsiders that try to take over violently!"

Jack shared a look with Daniel and they both shrugged and nodded, they couldn’t argue with that. All those on two legs moved back as far as they could away from the wolves, leaving them to sort their selves out. 

John stepped forward with his head held high, tail out flat behind him and ears forward, he didn’t like being aggressive but he would not loose control of his territory, the others would just have to learn to live with it, he wasn’t backing down. Unfortunately, even though Lorne was more than happy to step back for his CO and Don was content to stay quiet as long as nobody threatened Charlie, Ryan and Becker were still protecting their people, Lester was their boss if not their Alpha, and Merlin and Arthur were Pack and needed protecting, though they were both more than capable of protecting their selves, so they wouldn’t back down, if nothing else they wouldn’t back down to anyone that wasn’t strong enough to protect their people. It didn’t matter to them who won, as long as everyone fought as hard as they could, so they knew they were strong enough to keep everyone safe. So when John stepped forward, Ryan mirrored him, and Becker followed him, which Ronan wouldn’t ignore. Lorne would have loved to back his new CO but knew it wasn’t needed or appropriate, so he kept back with Don, watching over Charlie who was getting more agitated as the tension grew. Everyone except the Lycans noticed Bruce pulling Dean in tight to him and the rest of his team surrounding them, and wondered at it, but nobody commented for now.

The four of them stood like statues for a long moment before everything exploded, it moved so fast the humans just couldn’t keep up with it all, but they could hear the snarling and that was bad enough that everyone that had one pulled a weapon except those around Dean, which was again noted. It was all rather anti-climactic for those watching, in just a few short minutes of snarling, growling and flying blood John and Ronan had Ryan and Becker pinned to the floor by their throats, snarling and clamping down tight enough to draw blood but not cause permanent damage. Becker whimpered and tipped his head back quite quickly, figuratively rolling over beneath the jaws of the bigger black wolf. Ryan held out longer but eventually he had no choice, John started to tighten his grip around his throat and he had no way of escaping alive unless he capitulated, and he didn’t plan on dying. As soon as he relaxed John let go of his throat and started licking him instead, cleaning his fur and then licking his face too, checking him over and cleaning his injuries before going back to his face again, welcoming him to the Pack, before bouncing over to Becker and doing the same. 

Once he was happy that they were fully welcomed he bounced over to Lorne, pounced on Don and then very slowly and quietly approached Charlie, careful not to startle the young omega, rubbing noses with him and licking his face and generally treating him like spun glass. Charlie revelled in the attention and care for about five minutes, then he got annoyed, yes he was omega, no he didn’t like aggression, but as he had proven to his brother many times over he was not fragile. He licked John's nose, spun round quickly and then pounced on him, tugging his ears before chewing on his tail. John yipped his joy as he bounced around with Charlie, calling Ronan and the others to join them, and it wasn’t long before the seven wolves were playing together, all signs of aggression and tension gone as if they had never existed. Gibbs watched them enjoying their selves for ten minutes while the others slowly started talking between their selves, then when he decided they had gotten it out of their systems he let out a loud, piercing whistle. The seven Wolves stopped dead and looked at him, rolled off each other and quickly made their way to him, sitting round in a nice neat semi-circle, looking up at him expectantly. 

"Now you shift back, get dressed and let us get on with it, I am not hanging about all day."

The wolves looked at each other and John sighed, hanging his head a little, all their clothes were in the conference room. He looked back up at Gibbs and gave him a stupid grin with his tongue lolling out before turning to Jack and whining.

"I'm not a dog whisperer."

John growled at that and bared his teeth for a moment, just to make sure his displeasure was known, then Daniel chuckled and spoke.

"Nor am I but I'm pretty sure he wants to beam back to the conference room where all their clothes are."  
"Well, I could a figured that one out! I was just making a point Daniel! I'm not a mind reader!"  
"Yes you are, you just can't read Lycans."  
"Hush Xander. Nobody asked you."

Jack couldn’t stop grinning as he called for another beam up, he knew the official name was 'transport' but it was so much more fun to call for a beam up! Once they were all back the Lycans shifted and started looking for their clothes, not one of them actually cared about covering up, and they spent more time looking at each other than dressing, and John and Ronan were being checked by a very worried Rodney, but they were eventually all 'decent' again and sat around the conference table. Jack couldn’t help but notice that the 'groups' had now changed, instead of his group, the Atlantis group and outsiders, it was his group, Lycans and Rodney, and others. Everyone looked at each other for a while before Tony Stark grinned.

"Awkward!"  
"Tony."  
"What? This is pretty much the definition of awkward. I can not even begin to name all the levels on which this is awkward! It's about as much fun as a boarding school Christmas, and I say this from experience."  
"It could have gone better in many ways."

Dean tried to grin at Bruce as he said that, bringing everyone's attention back to the fact that he still hadn't regained his normal colour.

"That was SNAFU, not much worse than when I met you guys, just more of them."  
"True, but that was awkward too, just you know, at home, not in an alien city in Salt Lake City."  
"Can I take it further introductions are not necessary, or shall we go around the table?"

Everyone looked at Jack like he'd lost his mind and he grinned.

"Didn’t think so. So, anyone wanna explain Dr Winchester's reaction? Cause that was interesting, and bloody awkward in a combat situation."

He added the last so there could be no doubt as to how serious he was being, he wasn’t just idly curious, this really was need-to-know information, and he needed to know. Everyone looked at Dean, Dean just looked at the floor. Bruce sighed and squeezed his hand.

"Dean has a major issue with aggressive canines, with good reason we don’t need to go into right now, and it would be more than bloody awkward, it's mentally crippling. Dean is improving, but it isn't something he is ever likely to get over, but don’t let that make you think he's a liability or unable to protect his self. The problem is very much the opposite, if he is ever caught unawares by dogs, just stay away from him and keep others away, unless you want them dead, then by all means let them carry on."  
"Seriously?"  
"Dean becomes homicidally defensive around aggressive dogs, please do not make the mistake of taking this lightly. I take it you have all heard of the Avengers? That you know the reputations of the Black Widow and Hawkeye? You may not have heard of Agent Coulson but he trained them and is our Handler, the three of them together couldn’t stop Dean with less than lethal intent. This is not a joke, a trick or a prank, it is deadly serious and potentially lethal, Dean has enough to live with, he doesn’t need the guilt of killing our allies while he can't control his self."  
"With all due respect Captain, and I actually mean that, but why put Dr Winchester in a position where that could happen?"

Steve looked at Becker and considered him carefully, gauging his intent.

"Is there nothing in this life that could push you so far Captain? We all have our limits, but that doesn’t mean we can't still fight, can't defend others despite it. I would react similarly if threatened with ice, nobody likes making Bruce mad, and don’t try to get Tony near standing water, you wont like the results. More to the point, if you survived threatening any one of us, it wouldn’t last long because the others would make sure of it, our name wasn’t picked out of a hat, it's a warning. We all know what triggers each of us, and we cover each other when needed, but I wouldn’t willingly go to the arctic any more than Dean would to a dog pound, or Tony a swimming gala. You must have similar limits Captain, and I assume you and your friends know and work around them."

Jack was listening carefully like everyone else, and decided to add a little.

"I have an insane aversion to bugs. Seriously, it was bad enough before I got trapped in a sinking sub with thousands of homicidal alien metal ones, I scream like a nine year old girl when I find a spider."

Jack couldn’t help but grin at the amount of shudders that went around the table at the mention of spiders, but everyone was nodding, they all had something, and they all worked around it or relied on their people to get them through it. John was shuddering more than most and Rodney put a hand on his thigh under the table. He sighed deeply before he spoke.

"The Wraith in Pegasus are a failed experiment of the Ancients, they found these Iratus bugs, they suck the life out of you, so they crossed them with humans to make the Wraith. We found the planet they came from, and one attached its self to my neck, then the Puddle Jumper got stuck in the Gate and they had to stop my heart to get it off me. Not the best few hours of my life."  
"Don’t mind me, I'm just terrified of everything, completely paranoid."  
"Rodney."  
"No, no, I've heard enough people talking about me to know what everyone says, and that's not paranoia, it's not like I care anyway, they're all morons, they just aren't smart enough to be scared."  
"You aren't scared of everything, and even when you are scared you work through it, you've faced almost as many Wraith as I have."  
"Hell, I wouldn’t let you take me if I didn’t respect you as a warrior."

Everyone looked at Ronan for a moment, wondering if his honesty was natural or if he'd picked it up from Rodney. Daniel couldn’t help asking.

"Is everyone this open in Pegasus, or is it just Rodney's influence?"  
"Oh he was like that when we got him, you can't blame everything on me! Teyla and the Athosians are pretty much the same, they don’t understand why so many of our people are so stuck up about things, especially sex. The first week we were there Teyla asked Weir if she preferred anal or vaginal sex and how she dealt with contraception, her face was hilarious. The Genii aren't so open, but they don’t care who you sleep with as long as its consensual, though they encourage everyone to produce as many children as they can, but most of Pegasus is like that."  
"I don’t see why sex is any different from anything else, you talk about the weather, why not fucking? And why do so many of your men cringe at the mention of a woman's cycle? I don’t get that either."

All of the men in the room stared at Ronan for a long time in horrified silence before Daniel cleared his throat.

"Yes, well, I can go over a few things like that with you some time if you like, or I'm sure Dr Beckett would do so if you prefer a familiar face, but back to the reason we are all here."  
"Yes, thank you Danny, the reason we are here is to introduce everyone, which I think has been covered, and to make sure everyone knows where we stand with the IOA and the SGC."  
"Colonel O'Neill, emergency call from General Hammond, please respond."

Chuck's voice came over the speakers and Jack frowned.

"Danny, Xan with me. Gentlemen, if you will excuse us."

Five minutes later Jack let them know they would be leaving for a while but would return as soon as they could. Lester looked around the room with a sigh.

"I assume you can all find something to occupy your time for a while? I have enough paperwork to sign to keep me going for a few decades and I've only just accepted the job, so I suggest we reconvene as soon as O'Neill returns."

Nobody disagreed, they all had something they could be doing, and soon went their separate ways to wait for the vampires return. 

************


	2. Chapter Two

Earlier that afternoon,   
Commanche Creek, Texas, 'Bird Dog Security Solutions'. 

 

Fusco looked up from his book as the door opened, carefully taking in the newcomers. The first in was a tall blond woman, she was 5'9", a good few inches taller than him, but still not as tall as her companions, who were both at least 6'. The two men were your generic, cookie cutter soldier types, probably marines from the 'high and tight' look of them, but the huge black guy they had left outside was far from your usual anything, he was as thick set as Fusco but over 6' and looked to be all muscle, he wouldn’t like to bet on the outcome if John had to fight him. The woman smiled and they were all trying to appear friendly, they weren't coming in guns blazing, so to speak, and he knew he was safe enough, so he didn’t worry yet, he would let her have her say before he kicked them out, or got Tiny and co. to do so anyway.

"Hi, I'm Sam Carter, I met one of your dogs recently and his owner was good enough to give me your details, I was wondering what your selling criteria are?"

At least she had the sense not to try and 'cute' her way to a dog. He smiled at her.

"An appointment for a start, which the owner should have told you, but we vet all potential owners internally, leave your name and company, or posting, and we'll get back to you."

She smiled wider, almost looking hopeful.

"So how long do you think that might take?"  
"Not as long as you might think. What were you looking for? Ability wise?"  
"Well, the dog we met knew there was an uninvited guest around, seemed to smell him, that is what we were looking for."

Fusco looked at all three of them, then outside to the other man as his ear piece clicked on.

"Lionel, she is USAF Major Samantha Carter and she is based out of Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado Springs, but she isn't with NORAD, Finch is actually having to try to get past their firewalls, so keep her busy or get rid of her quick."

Fusco smiled at her.

"For you personally or your base Major?"

He did so love coming over as the all knowing 'oracle', it was great fun seeing the looks on peoples faces, especially when he had the boys to back him up. The Major got that great look of shock on her face for a split second, then she went cold.

"How, exactly, would you know my rank sir?"  
"Like I said, we have our own internal vetting system. Most people know enough to book an appointment if they want one of our dogs, you come in my door like this, I gotta check you out quick, so I know if you's good enough for our babies. We don’t sell to the military, it's not good for the dogs to get passed around like a tool, or 'retired' cause they got blown up."  
"We don’t 'pass around' military dogs sir, every dog has one handler, they live and work together, and if the dog gets too badly injured to work they generally get taken home and kept there. Our animals are not tools, they are service men and women just like the rest of us and get treated just the same. As it is, we were looking for two or three specialised dogs purely for gate duty, like a sniffer dog for people."

Fusco's ear piece clicked again.

"She sounds genuine, and she's right about the animals, but there is something off here, let Tiny in to her, see how the boys react, I'm on my way out."

Fusco knew better than to react, let alone respond, to the voice in his ear, but he was really glad it was one of the few days John and Harold spent in the 'shop' instead of the homestead. He stood up slowly and pushed the emergency button for the yard door, letting his boys in. Tiny came first, as always followed by his posse, and though he ignored the two men once he had looked them over he went straight to the woman and sniffed her carefully then barked once before sitting at attention right in front of her. Tiny was a Kuvasz, he was white and fluffy and stood taller than Fusco on his hind legs, he could comfortably stand up and rest his front paws on Fusco's shoulders and though it was close, he was the taller of them, so when he sniffed someone they generally tended to stay very still and let him. The Major was no exception, though she showed no sign of fear, just a very healthy respect. The rest of the boys followed Tiny, as always, and sat down quietly. The only other time Fusco had seen any of the dogs sit to attention in front of anyone like this was with John and Harold, which begged the question, what was going on? 

"That is exactly what the last one of your dogs did. We really need to have a long chat."

John's timing was perfect as usual, walking through the door in his ratty jeans and t-shirt, wiping his hands off on a rag, closely shadowed by his 'core pack' as Fusco called them. Bear had his nose to John's right heal, right where he always was unless he was with Harold, Ursa, Bear's mate, at his left heal and Eugene and Tomo, a mated pair of Akita Inu, right behind them. And that's when things could have, and very nearly did, gone to hell.

Major Carter looked straight at him as he walked in the room, not just checking him over like the two grunts with her, but stunned by him, and scared if the sudden tension was anything to go by, but she hid it quite well, not many would have seen it. John also reacted to her.

"Custos!"

Every dog in the room suddenly became a threat to the Major and her guards, stood to attention, teeth bared, hackles raised and showing every sign of homicidal intent, and considering there were two Malinois, two Akita, a Kuvasz, three Doberman and a Manchester Terrier, the Major and her guards did the sensible thing and stayed still. John looked at them, taking in the look of hatred in the Major's eyes and wondered how a Goa'uld had found them.

"How did you find us?"  
"Oh, I hate to admit it but this is a complete accident, but there are people waiting outside, and if you did mange to get them too my General knows where I am and will send a lot of people looking for me. Your only chance is to turn away and leave now!"  
"This is my home, I'm not going anywhere. And don’t think I wont make sure your General finds out exactly what you are after I put you down, you can't hide here any longer. I don’t know what your plans are but they end now, I wont let you hurt these people."  
"What?"  
"I'm fairly sure that was plain enough even for a worm like you to follow."  
"Ex-snake. Who are you?"  
"You really aren't in any position for that tone of voice Goa'uld."  
"Tok'ra."

Her tone of voice made John pause and Luka started to really pay attention.

"Now, strangely, that didn’t sound like an insult?"  
"It wasn’t, I was host to a Tok'ra for a short while, not a Goa'uld."  
"Really? Who?"  
"Why should I tell you?"  
"Because you still aren't in any position to use that tone, and if you honestly are Tok'ra, we have a lot to discuss, so convince me, or the dogs get an early work-out."

John hadn't raised his voice or even used an aggressive tone the entire time, but there was no mistaking his intent. Sam and her guards gulped at that, with the amount and sheer size of some of these dogs, they really couldn’t afford to argue unless they had no choice, and so far talking seemed to be working.

"Jolinar of Malkshur."  
"And why would you have blended with Jolinar?"  
"I didn’t, her host was dying, she was being chased by an Ashrak, and she kind of borrowed me to escape. Unfortunately it didn’t do her much good, the Ashrak still found her and she didn’t want me to be killed because of her, so she let herself die to save me. She was the first Tok'ra we had met, we didn’t really believe she wasn’t Goa'uld."  
"What the hell bullshit you talking about Lady?"  
"Not now Lionel, I'll explain later. Continue Major Carter."  
"I think I've told you more than enough, position or not, it wont be long before someone checks on us, then everything is going to go to hell, so why don’t you talk for a moment, convince 'me'."

John smiled at her, then turned to Fusco.

"You know that weird thing with the voices that you don’t ask about? You still trust me?"  
"Course boss, weird is part of the package with you guys."  
"Thank you Lionel, we met them before we came here, so we still aren't a threat to you, and no, we still haven't learnt to communicate. Major, we are blended with Luka and Jovan of the Tok'ra, they knew Jolinar, but they've been out of the loop for a long time, they got stranded here when our people buried the Chaapa'ai, they have caused no harm, they are no threat, they just want to be left alone."  
"We call it the Stargate, we've been exploring through it for years, since Apophis came through and took one of our people, killed everyone else there at the time. We've been fighting back since, we've defeated the System Lords, there are just a few Goa'uld left, they aren't much of a threat any more."  
"Really? So, is Garshaw still around? How about Selmak?"  
"I'm sorry, Garshaw was killed recently, but Selmak is well, my father is actually her host now."  
"Really? It's a long time since I spoke to the old bird. So where do you intend to go from here Major? Pax."

The dogs all immediately acted like nothing had happened, the four that had come in with John sat down around his feet, Tiny went to Fusco and the rest wandered around or went back out into the yard. Sam relaxed.

"Their training really is remarkable."  
"Thank you, we all work together, the dogs choose who they go with, it's the only way to get the loyalty needed."  
"Really? Are all the dogs trained the same way?"  
"To a degree. All of them are taught the same basic manners and commands, then we tailor to each dogs strengths. Bear here was trained by the military, he came to me almost perfect, Ursa I bought not long after he adopted us, and these two mutts are Tomo and Eugene, we rescued them, along with many others, from a puppy farm, they were breeding for fighting dogs, so we shut them down permanently. Some of the animals had to be put down for their own good, we have those that were physically able to pull through but aren't really safe to be around most folk at the Homestead. The Three Amigos, the Dobermans, we rescued at the same time, they can't be separated, and they have adopted Fusco, along with Tiny."  
"Tiny?"  
"Harold wouldn’t let me call him Hooch."

John said it with such deadpan seriousness that Sam almost fell for it, only she saw Fusco trying to hide a smirk. She smiled at them.

"Wouldn’t Beethoven be more appropriate?" 

John smiled, and it lit up his face. 

"I'm John Reese, welcome to 'Bird Dogs'. So who's looking to be adopted by the dogs?"  
"We aren't really sure yet. We want them stationed in the Gate room, so they can check everyone that comes through, but all of our SF's take a turn through the Gate room protection detail. It's a high stress job so we can't leave any one person always on that detail, but that wont work for the dogs. They also need to know how and when to get out of the way, if the bullets start flying we don’t want them being heroic and getting shot, that's why the detail have body armour."  
"Could be tricky, we encourage them to go with their instincts and always protect the Pack, that's how we work. If you order them down, or out of the room they will obey, but their instinct is to protect. If I had a Gate room, I would have any exits leading into a secure area, like a bio hazard containment area, so one door couldn’t open until the other was closed, that kind of thing, so any bugs that came through, humanoid or not, wouldn’t be able to leave the area until they had been through it, and I would put the dogs in there."

Sam actually looked surprised for a moment.

"Why have we never thought of that? That is such a ridiculously good idea!"  
"Too obvious, you never think of the obvious when you're close to a situation. You can only see some things from a distance."

Sam smiled at him for that. Luka was showing him a quick history of his interaction with Jolinar, then Harold spoke to him through their comms. 

"I'm through the firewalls, you might want to tell the good Major they need to upgrade their security, it didn’t even take me long and Jovan is bored senseless. He didn’t even get to help. General Hammond is in charge, a Colonel O'Neill is his second. You can also tell her the Gate technicians would probably be the best people for the dogs to adopt, they wont mind working with a range of SF's as long as they get to go back with their human regularly, they could work eight hour shifts along with their tech, it will work. And the smaller dogs would be better, they wont need so much exercise and they don’t want fighting ability so they don’t need any of your warriors."

John grinned at Carter.

"Why don’t you get in touch with General Hammond, get him to pick his three best Gate Technicians, we'll see if any of the dogs want them."  
"You really are quite good with Intel Mr Reese"

Sam did not sound happy about that, for obvious reasons, but she couldn't help being impressed.

"We really are. My better half said you could do with better security on your system, he also suggests the first tech you ask is Sergeant Harriman, he has a clean record and is a genuinely nice man, in and out of work. The dogs will be happy working with your SF's for the eight hour shift the tech's work, and that gives you 24hr cover. Later you could maybe introduce another team, just to give everyone a fighting chance at a break, once you know if it works out for you."

Sam stared at him stunned for a long moment after he had stopped talking, he just quietly waited for her to gather herself, he was nice like that, sometimes. Luka snorted at that thought, reminding him of all the times he tormented Fusco or teased Harold. John just grinned.

"How?"  
"We get that a lot, which is why we insist on appointments, that way people think we took a long time vetting them, it makes them feel better. Harold insists, for manners sake. Lionel and I prefer the fun of seeing that look on peoples faces, but we don’t get to see it often, so thank you for not making an appointment. If you ask him really nicely he might agree to charge the government a small fortune to point and laugh at their security and eventually give a few pointers to improve it."  
"John!"

Harold strode in through the yard door, proving that John wasn’t the only one with perfect timing. 

"I would do no such thing! I would charge them a large fortune at the very least, then send you to point and laugh while I fixed it from here."  
"So sorry Harold."  
"As you should be. Major. You should either leave to keep up the pretence or just get the General to order the Prometheus to transport the three techs here, which ever you prefer."

Sam stood in stunned silence again while John ducked his head to try and leave her with a little dignity.

"Right. I'm going to go outside and get reamed in private, then I will be back in, with Teal'c, the big guy outside, please don’t do anything rash, he is Jaffa, but he has worked with us against the Goa'uld for years, he's a good man who gave up everything for a chance to do the right thing."

John and Harold looked at each other for a moment, then nodded to her, Harold and Jovan had seen the reports and John and Luka trusted their judgment. 

"Have fun with that, and if you get any problems just let us know."  
"I don’t think I will, if you don’t mind. I really like General Hammond, and my job, so I think I'll deal with it my self, but thanks for the offer."  
"Major! That almost sounded like you don’t trust us?"  
"And there would be a reason for that. Now, if you would excuse us for a while, I will go get that reaming now." 

With that Sam smiled at them, nodded to her guards and they all left quietly. John grinned at Harold.

"You two ok?"  
"Don’t be more ridiculous than usual Mr Reese, you saw me less than ten minutes ago, I am not you and can't get into trouble that fast on my own property surrounded by the Pack."

John smiled and sidled closer to him, snuffling at his neck playfully. Fusco cleared his throat.

"You's two agreed not to do that at work. You wanna fill me in now?"

John and Harold looked at each other, sighed and turned to Fusco. 

"Do you remember that case about four years ago when I called you and Carter in, told you I needed ambulances and lots of people to get a guy off meat hooks?"  
"Who could forget it? That was some sick shit them guys did! Your guy was lucky you got there when you did."  
"Yeah, in more ways than one. The reason the first two were tortured so badly was to get to our houseguests, Luka and Jovan."  
"The ones I've heard but never seen, them ones?"  
"Yes. The reason you have never seen them Mr Fusco is that they are currently wrapped around our spines."

Fusco looked at them for a long while before he nodded.

"That's how you got better."  
"Yes. They have a way of healing human bodies, in exchange for a host, for sharing our bodies with them, they have given us perfect health, and healed my wounds."  
"Wow, they really are good guys then, to fix you up so good, I never seen 'tall, dark and broody' really happy until you got better, improved all our lives."

John couldn’t help grinning at Fusco for that perceptive little comment. He looked out the window at the Major, pacing and waving a hand around as she talked on the phone.

"Should we be listening in on that conversation?"  
"I already am Mr Reese. She has asked the General to send three technicians, including Harriman, and O'Neill and Harris later. That would be one Alexander Harris, he joined the program under very strange circumstances, along with two other men, I have a program looking into them all now, it is very odd, the lack of information on them. The other two are officially aliens, but they all joined the group on the same day that O'Neill came back from a very sudden leave, very vexing."  
"Huh. You could call it that, I would call it bull, but you could call it that."

Harold smiled at John for that, wrapping his arm around his waist proprietarily and pulling him in.

"Feel free to take the rest of the day off Mr Fusco, as I have the feeling I will not be letting Mr Reese out of my sight any time soon, and I know how it bothers your delicate sensibilities."  
"Makes him jealous you mean?"  
"That too, but I was going to be polite enough not to mention it."  
"I wasn’t."  
"You rarely are dear, now be a good boy and go put the dogs away and let the little ones out into the yard, General Hammond appears to know his people well, he has already chosen his three adoptee's, they should be here in about ten minutes."

John looked out the window and back at Harold, a hint of concern on his face, Harold grinned.

"The Pack will be staying with me, now be a good boy."  
"Yes Sir."

John lowered and tilted his head and left to do as he had been asked, so he could get back as soon as possible. That was as close as either of them had ever got to showing their true relationship in front of anyone, they were both very private men and didn’t feel the need to let others in on their world, they already shared everything with Luka and Jovan. John walked into the yard and let the dogs there greet him for a long moment then sent them to bed.

"Bâm."

The dogs all went straight back to their own bed and laid down while he closed their runs, the longest part of the job was letting the other dogs out of their runs. While at the 'shop' the dogs were kept in kennels with indoor and outdoor caged in areas, as most of them were good jumpers, so that individual dogs could be let out at any given time but they got used to sleeping and being alone before they were allowed to adopt a human, it saved on separation issues later. The larger dogs had all been out, as it was their turn, the large and small dogs were generally separated because of the difference in how much exercise they needed, though they all came out in the morning and evening for a good play and socialisation. As soon as the smaller dogs were out and ready he left them to play in the yard and went back to Harold. By the time he got back the Major and four new men were there with her, including the Jaffa Teal'c, John liked the look of the man and Harold and Jovan had read all about him and still approved, so Luka was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt as well. The other three men were looking a little harried, to say the least, Harriman was the only one in uniform, it being the middle of his shift, but they were all willing and ready to do as they had been asked. John glanced at Harold and caught his approving smile, the tiny one most people didn’t notice, so he knew all was well. He nodded to the Major and looked carefully at the three men, keeping his face a blank mask.

"With me."

And with that John turned and went back to the yard. Sam looked to Teal'c but he had already started following John out the door, so she shook her head and turned to the three tech's, only to find them following Teal'c, she shook her head as she looked at the recently introduced Mr Finch and then followed them all as he just stared blandly at her, hearing Fusco chuckle as she left. When she got outside she found the yard full of tiny dogs all sat at Teal'c's feet, staring up at him, then they noticed her and about half ran over to check her out, sitting and staring up at her with a little yip each. It still amazed her how quickly these dogs all spotted anything Goa'uld ish, even herself so long after Jolinar had died. John left the dogs too it for a moment then spoke to them in the same quiet drawl he used with everyone it seemed.

"Pax. Lego."

As soon as John spoke two Papillion bitches ran to Walter Harriman and sat at his feet, staring up at him adoringly. A few minutes later a Manchester Terrier dog had attached it's self to the heel of Airman Johnson, and moments after that a Papillion dog chose Airman Benson. By the time Benson had his new owner Walter was sat on the floor with two Papillion in his lap, licking every inch of skin they could find and all three loving every minute of it. John held back his smile but Harold didn’t, he loved it so much when one of their babies found a new pet. John honestly just wanted to keep all of the dogs forever, it wasn’t like they couldn’t afford it, like he kept reminding his partner, but sometimes the dogs were ready to go, as Harold, Jovan and Luka kept reminding him, so he put up with it, but he didn’t have to like it. The other dogs weren't interested in the guests so John sent them back to bed.

"Bâm. We have a care sheet and a list of commands, if you don’t learn them, the dogs will leave you, if you try to miss treat them they will leave you, if anyone around you tries to abuse them and you don’t do your best to protect them they will leave you, they will come home, and if they come home I will not only keep them, I will find out why they came home and I will react appropriately. These dogs have just adopted you, it is an honour and a privilege. Not every person that requests one of our dogs gets chosen, many walk away empty handed, and most don’t appreciate that, but the one that tried to take a dog by force was taken out of here by an ambulance, he tried to take Tomo, Tomo wasn’t interested, and Eugene wasn’t impressed either, they let him know. Akita aren't known for being shy and retiring, but he thought he could 'make' them do what he wanted, they proved him wrong. Harold called them off before they killed him."

John sounded disappointed at that and Sam gave him a very careful look trying to decide if it was genuine or not. Teal'c just nodded along with it, completely agreeing with the sentiment. Teal'c had spent most of the time looking around at the other dogs still in their runs.

"May we meet the other dogs? I have not met many other than the security dogs at the base, and they are not available for 'fun' while they work."

John shared a quick look with Harold and hit the emergency unlock button for all the runs that Harold had installed on his watch, letting all the dogs out at once. All of the dogs greeted Sam and Teal'c with the usual sniff, bark and sit combo, except one. A Greater Swiss Mountain Dog walked straight up to Teal'c, took a turn around him and sat right at his heal, looking up at him for a long time before looking over at John expectantly. John looked back at the dog for a long time before he sighed and nodded.

"Hoeden Manny, Hoeden."

The dog gave one deep, sharp bark and looked back up at Teal'c. Teal'c looked back at him then to John and raised his eyebrow in question.

"That's Manny, actually it's Inmanis, but he answers to Manny, he's adopted you."  
"Indeed!"  
"Ah Teal'c, I'm not sure that's really possible."  
"Make it possible Major. Manny has chosen, he has been here for two years on and off, and never shown the slightest interest in a single person, he wants Teal'c, he gets him."  
"It's not that easy."  
"Make it. Because you wont leave here without him, and if you manage to pull off a miracle, you drove here, he will follow your scent back to where ever you came from, he will find you, and nothing I or anyone else can say or do will stop him. So get used to it. I would tell you the same rules apply, but Manny will dish out his own discipline, then come home, and I'll check if I have to bury your corpse or shoot you in the head then bury you."

Teal'c looked at John solemnly and bowed to him.

"As it should be. I will honour Manny as he honours me. Major Carter is merely concerned about our work schedule, as we are often away for unpredictable periods, not because she dislikes the idea of me having Manny, but I will find a way to work around it."

Harriman looked over at them and grinned as his girls ran to join Manny.

"He can always stay with me and the girls if you want? He would be with the girls at home and he could come to work with me if the General agrees, the amount of times I've been knocked out in the control room, it would be nice to have a protector in there."

Sam shrugged agreeably, she couldn’t argue his logic and he did tend to get knocked out quite a lot, unfortunately it was by a member of SG1 way too often. 

"That sounds great! I'm sure the General can be persuaded, we have security dogs on the base so it wont be all that much different."

Teal'c nodded solemnly to Walter.

"Thank you Sergeant Harriman, I believe that will be well."  
"It's near sunset, Jack will be down soon, Walter, why don’t you and the guys go on up now with your new 'owners' and send them down? I would like to see how the dogs react to them."

The last was said with a grin that was ever so slightly malicious but mostly mischievous, she hadn't quite forgiven him for laughing at her when she reported the dogs reactions to her. Walter grinned back at her, almost wishing he could stay, and tapped the com in his ear to call the Prometheus, unfortunately neither of them really thought it through. 

John and Harold watched silently as the three men picked their new companions up and then disappeared in a white light. Sam watched them carefully, waiting for the shock and astonishment on their faces, only it never came. Harold raised one eyebrow for a moment but John didn’t so much as blink. She shook her head in her own shock at their lack and wondered how they would take Jack. As she was wondering at them the sun was setting quickly and she almost held her breath, knowing Jack was about to transport down.

Jack, Daniel and Xander materialised almost exactly where the three tech's had disappeared from, looking around carefully, instinct and training kicking in even in a supposedly safe environment. All of the dogs were instantly on their guard, getting between John and Harold and the new-comers, teeth bared and hackles raised. Jack raised his eyebrows and looked at Sam.

"Carter? I was in the middle of an important meeting, I don’t feel like playing chew toy today."  
"Jack!"  
"Daniel!"  
"Jack."  
"Sir! Mr Reece, I take it the dogs don’t actually attack without permission?"  
"Not unless they or the Pack are threatened, no. So, what are you? The Air Force seems a lot more open minded than the Army ever was."

Jack grinned at him like a boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar and John couldn’t help but be charmed.

"We are vampires Mr Reese, but you're a Lycan so the Army can't be all that picky."

Harold raised an eyebrow again but John was still perfectly blank, not giving away anything, though inside he was a gibbering mess, for so many reasons. The fact that someone else, now four new people, knew about him was not only stunning it was also terrifying, it had taken him years to trust Harold with his secret, and these people had all just been told! Harold glanced at him and knew he wasn’t taking it well, so he took over the conversation, trying to shift peoples thoughts away from his lover.

"Vampire?"

Jack hadn't missed John's heart rate going through the roof, and he couldn’t miss the stink of panic that poured off him as soon as he mentioned Lycan's, so he allowed the subject change.

"Yes Mr Finch, Vampire, undead, fangs and all. You can't seriously be too surprised, you know Lycan's!"  
"Werewolf, singular Colonel, I knew nothing of any of this until very recently, and John has never met another of his kind, and I thought Vampires were myth, just like werewolves, so yes, you will have to permit me a little surprise."  
"Special ops and CIA and you never came across another Lycan? Were did they keep you locked up? And you are definitely a Lycan, not a werewolf, there is a hell of a difference and we can go into that later if you want. You do know the CIA is still looking for you right?"

Harold looked at Jack carefully, someone had obviously done their homework and figured out who John was. John just accepted it and started planning how to get all the dogs away safely if they had to run.

"Amice(Friend). Of course, I'm not dead yet."  
"There is that, how come?"  
"My partner was sadistic, decided to go for a gut shot, not head, and missed."  
"Huh, sadistic I can handle, incompetence just pisses me off."  
"Jack! I apologise Mr Reece, Mr Finch, I'm Daniel Jackson, and this is Xander Harris."

As Daniel was introducing Xander he realised he was watching John a little too closely, with a look of confusion on his face.

"Xander?"  
"Huh? Oh, sorry, it's just, there's something about you, I know your face, I just don’t know why?"

Everybody looked at Xander in varying degrees of patience, except John who was still a blank slate, until he suddenly bounced on his toes with a huge grin.

"Uncle Ray! You look just like the pictures of Uncle Ray's son, John! I never met him, he joined the army at like, 17, when I was only little, Tony wouldn’t have anything to do with them after they refused him a fifth 'lone' when he hadn't paid them back any of the others. We were told he was KIA though."

Everyone turned to stare at John, he just looked to Harold, waiting for the ok, when he received a nod from his Alpha he turned back to Xander. Nobody had missed the exchange. 

"Jean and Raymond Harris were my parents."  
"You don’t smell like family?"

John looked at Harold again, ignoring everyone else entirely, he had had more than enough of talking about his self with complete strangers and hoped his Alpha would take on the explanations for him, luckily Harold knew him so well he did exactly that. Harold nodded to him understandingly, so John turned away from them all, ignoring the looks he knew he was getting and went back into the kennels whistling for the dogs, using them as a good excuse to get away while his Alpha dealt with it.

"Mr Reese is a private man Mr Harris, we both are, we do not share, or trust, easily, you will forgive us if we don’t share life stories, however, John was adopted."  
"Nobody ever mentioned that."  
"They wouldn’t, they found him on a camping trip and falsified a Birth Certificate, claimed him as their natural born child to save 'complications' later."  
"They 'found' him? You don’t just find a child and claim them! What about his parents? His real family? His name!"  
"Breath Daniel, I'm sure there is a great explanation, you just have to stop talking long enough for him to tell us."

Harold considered them for a long while and decided they had heard enough for now, getting to John was more important.

"There is still paperwork to be completed for the adoptions, if you would care to return to the office Mr Fusco will deal with that for you."

With that he followed John, obviously certain they would follow his instructions, and they did, none of them wanted to push either of the men.

************ 

John walked inside and called the dogs, making sure they were all in their kennels and checking they all had food and clean water on automatic while he 'chatted' with Luka.

[You did well John.]  
[Really? Running away is doing well now?]  
[Leaving before anything unfortunate happened, and trusting your Alpha to look after you is doing well John.]  
[Feels a lot like running away.]  
[That is because you have had too many people expecting too much of you for too long, you did what you know your Alpha would have wanted. There is no point engendering bad feelings because you can't find the right words to tell them to back off before they upset you more. You dealt with the surprise of them knowing what you are, I didn’t even think I might have to intervene, you did well John.]  
[Keep it up and you'll make me blush.]  
[Very funny, but I know exactly how you are feeling, you don’t need to try and hide from me John, you know that. I hear Harold coming, hurry and finish and he might reward you.]  
[He always rewards me, he lets me stay.]

Luka loved John dearly, in the time they had been together they had become almost as close as he and Jovan, and he once again considered exactly what he would like to do to the imbeciles at the CIA that had done their best to break John. John chuckled at the images, which just showed how screwed up his head was, but he refused to feel bad about it, he was what nature and training had made him, only recently learning from Harold that he could shake the CIA training and be the man he had been before, the man he should be, a man whose eye he could meet in the mirror. Luka smiled at him, proud of him in so many ways, and really wishing he had a little more faith in his self. John finished checking the last bowl as Harold joined him. 

Harold stopped in the corridor between the kennels and waited for John to join him, he knew his boy was not doing well, and he knew how to help. John stopped directly in front of him and dropped gracefully to his knees, leaning forward but not touching without permission. Harold rested his hand on his head and pulled him in. John let out a sigh of relief and fell into Harold, going almost boneless as he gave everything over to his Alpha. Harold sighed at the same time as Jovan and Luka did, all wishing they could make John believe in his self as much as they believed in him, but loving him despite it. 

"What do you need precious?"

John whined, he knew he should answer in words but he didn’t have any, he just didn’t know, his mind was too full of thoughts and emotions that he didn’t want to deal with. Harold sighed again, he knew that John 'couldn't' answer or he would have done so right away.

"Ok. We have ten minutes while they sort out the paperwork, then you will follow me to the office, you will stay one step behind and to the right of me at all times, you will keep your eyes forward and you will not speak, if you are spoken to I will deal with it, do you understand?"

John could have cried with the relief, Harold had just stripped him of all power, and protected him completely by doing so, he just had to stand by his Alpha, that was all, he whined instead, knowing Harold would understand. Harold ran his fingers through his hair soothingly, just letting his boy relax and centre his self before they had to go back. He gave him the full ten minutes then took a moment to call the pack as John stood up, Bear and Ursa stood with John as they always did, Tomo and Eugene flanking Harold as they usually did when the two men were together, all four of them throwing worried glances at John, knowing he wasn’t happy, Bear and Ursa crowding against his legs, reassuring him in the only way they could. John took a deep breath, pulling his self back together, his face returning to it's blank, impervious mask that Harold hated so much even as he reached down and scratched them both behind the ears, reassuring and thanking them in one, before he straightened and put his hands behind his back, standing at 'ease', waiting for Harold to lead them back to the office. Harold sighed quietly, hating that John needed it but glad he could provide what was necessary anyway. He didn’t need to speak, he just walked back to the office, knowing John would be one step behind and to his right and the dogs would be at their heals, and he wasn’t wrong.

************ 

Jack watched John walk away, more than aware the man was barely holding his self together, he could smell the fear and pain pouring off him, only half listening to Harold explain, or almost explain anyway. He wasn’t surprised when they were all sent back to the office and got everyone moving in the right direction quickly, though Carter was reluctant. He smiled at Daniel and Xander, though Daniel was still silently ranting about 'claiming' a child in their heads, they could both smell the despair on John as well as he could and were more than happy to give his Alpha some space to calm him down. Jack had already liked what he knew of Mr Reese before they had even met him, he had been a Green Beret for two tours, then Force Recon, top of his unit and liked and respected by his superiors and subordinates alike. He had then gone off grid, been recruited by the CIA and gone from good to great as far as his handlers were concerned, until he was suddenly declared 'Rogue' and 'retired'. He had suddenly turned up again in a New York Police station, his prints being checked after he was attacked on the subway. Jack had loved the surveillance tape footage, kept a copy for his self, it was a perfect example of Karma, five armed young idiots, thinking they ruled the world, picking on a lone man, they definitely got what they deserved. High jacking their gun buy the next night was just icing on the cake and really called to his sense of humour.

{Carter, back off Reese, I want him coming back to the Mountain with us willingly, this is not a man you want as an enemy.}  
{He's been fine so far, if rude.}  
{No he hasn’t, he just hides really well! He reeks of fear Sam, his heart rate went through the roof when Jack mentioned he was a Lycan. And don’t stand too close to Mr Finch either, I don’t think it would go down too well, especially right now.}  
{Indeed Daniel Jackson, John Reese would not take well to any encroachment on his territory, let alone his Mate.}  
{How the hell did you come up with that idea?}  
~You mean other than the fact that he looks to him for protection, guidance and comfort? Could be that they stink of each other.~  
{Not how I would have worded it Xander, but basically, yeah, Harold is obviously his Alpha.}

Sam was just staring at them all in shock, even as she wondered what Xander had said to get that response, when John had called Harold his 'better half' she had thought he was joking, just pulling her leg, apparently not. 

{So how do we convince them to come with us?}  
{We don’t. We invite Harold and hope he accepts. But first we have to do paperwork! And I'm delegating, who wants it?}

The others looked at each other and smiled, it was so Jack! Sam sighed and started walking faster, knowing she might as well 'volunteer' as she would end up doing it anyway. It took just over ten minutes to go through the paperwork with Fusco, and as they were finishing Harold walked in to the office with John. Jack carefully took in how John was exactly one step behind and to the side of Harold and staring straight ahead, ignoring everyone, even the dogs looked tense. 

{Um, guys, I don’t think we should talk to John right now.}  
{Why Daniel?}  
{Look at the way he's stood at 'ease', not looking at anyone, and the dogs are too tense, one wrong step right now and we could have a serious problem. I don’t think John is coping well with us knowing about him, or being found.}  
{Or he sees us as a threat to Mr Finch.}  
{Seriously? Have you not seen any of us when we think Angel is threatened? That is fear for his self, his emotions, not a threat to his Alpha, we'd be dead if he felt threatened.}  
{You think he could take us all?}  
{I wouldn’t want to try it, put it that way, he would certainly cause serious damage, I've spotted three knives and two guns already, not all of us would walk away alive that's for sure, even without the dogs.}  
{With Harold Finch threatened I fear none of us would walk away.}

Sam stared open mouthed at Teal'c for that, coming from the big guy that was seriously scary. Harold was watching them carefully, taking in everything, then he raised his eyebrow.

"You don’t have any type of electrical communication devices that I can detect working right now, and I can detect anything human made, which begs the question, how exactly are you communicating? Isn't telepathy taking the whole 'supernatural' fiasco a little too far?"

Jack grinned at him, ecstatic at more proof that he should get these two working with them at the Mountain, or even Atlantis, there was no way Hammond could argue that they were both needed. 

"Vampires are naturally telepathic, we weren't joking earlier, but Danny, Carter, Teal'c and I use comm.'s the Asgard put in our heads, don’t know how it works but it does."  
"Fascinating! It's a shame I can't look at the technology. Jovan has heard of the Asgard but never met them."  
"They have a lot of anti-Goa'uld tech on their protected planets, so that's probably for the best. We could probably introduce you to them though."  
"Really Dr Jackson? You want us that badly?"

Daniel was honestly confused by Harold's scathing tone.

"Pardon?"  
"You offer to set up a meeting between two symbiotes with host's of questionable background and your apparently very close and useful alien ally. I can't help but wonder what you expect out of it?"

Daniel stared at him in open mouthed shock, completely at a loss. Then Fusco laughed.

"Don’t mind Glasses, it's nothing personal, he's just completely paranoid. The dogs like you, you're safe enough so long as you don’t get no ideas. And don’t think they'll go anywhere alone, you wont pry those dogs off them, if they can't go neither will the boss's. Now the lot of you can get on without me, you interrupted enough of my day already, make an appointment next time."

With the tension broken Fusco walked through to the back room of his office, giving them time to try and convince Finch. Sam was shaking her head in confusion again, she really couldn’t get a line on these people, though Jack seemed more than happy with them, which made her wonder exactly what had been found in their background checks. Jack grinned at Harold.

"So, we want you guys at the Mountain, for a visit at the least, preferably permanently. What little we have found about you, most of which just emphasises what we didn’t find, tells me there is literally nothing I can buy that you couldn’t get or make better, so that doesn’t leave me with a lot in the way of incentives to offer you. You are currently hosts to Tok'ra, that leaves me with even less. So, if you wanna meet the Asgard, I can make that happen, that's one incentive I do have, Though Danny was being completely genuine when he offered, he's just helpful that way, I also have a possible incentive in the shape of the Lost City of Atlantis, but they already have a Pack of Lycans, so that's iffy at best, though I will get you to the outpost in Antarctica, all the geek's…"

Jack paused as John growled, actually looking at him for the first time since getting back to the office. Jack met his eyes and nodded, acknowledging his displeasure before continuing carefully. 

"Love the outpost. The SGC is an Air Force run project gentlemen, we work with Marines and military from half a dozen other countries including the SAS, we have civilians from everywhere, over a dozen different nationalities work together, military and civilian alike. Danny is 'My' geek, Sam is a military geek, Astrophysics, she's also a damned fine fighter pilot. Everyone that works in the Mountain learns to think fast, especially when it comes to language. Plenty of us call the scientists geeks, not through a lack of respect, but because we can, like Mr Fusco calling Mr Finch 'Glasses'. You have to be tolerant and open minded to last in the Mountain. Though, you should have seen Carter's face the first time one of the SAS guys called her 'love', that was a Kodak moment."

Sam glared at him for that and he grinned back unrepentantly. 

"Anything intended as an insult will be clear, you wont mistake it, but a lack of tolerance doesn’t survive at the SGC because we work with 'Aliens'! All preconceived notions of right and wrong, acceptable and not go out of the window every time you step through the Gate, so we have a very careful vetting process too. When we first started this gig I wouldn’t have left Danny around any military personnel unattended, let alone on a base, but the SGC is different, because we have to be, we don’t have a choice. I am second in command of Cheyenne Mountain, and I don’t accept anything less than the best, most professional and tolerant staff, military or civilian, and nor does General Hammond. I answer only to him, and my Sire, he answers only to the President, that is it, no other chain of command, so if you are working for us, we will keep you safe, and the CIA can go screw, because the President likes me better than their Director, he let me keep my job even after I died, not many can say that, he also made sure the JCS knew they would be getting rid of DADT as soon as possible and it was to be completely disregarded for anyone in the Mountain, though it has been pretty much since the start. I don’t suggest you make a habit of making out in the mess, but that's because people eat in there, nobody wants to watch that while they eat. You wanna run around in a pink tutu in your off hours, you carry on, but don’t complain about being cold and don’t be surprised if you get laughed at. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, so offer yours politely and accept others as long as they do the same, but don’t jump down someone's throat because of a word, that'll get you in more trouble than even you're worth, it's a waste of my time to even try and take you back if you can't handle that. I 'know' you two will be a huge asset to the program, and I believe we will be an asset to you, and your guests, but not if this is going to be a recurring problem."

John had gone back to staring at the wall as soon as he realised Jack hadn't been being insulting, but he listened, and waited for Harold to make a decision. Harold listened to Jack patiently, weighing up his options carefully, there was only one big question left to answer.

"So, you wanna give us a chance or not?"  
"What about the dogs?"  
"How do you mean?"  
"As you can see, these four rarely if ever leave our sides, they are always with one or the other of us. Then there are the others here and Mr Fusco's quintet, and finally our friends on the Homestead, some of them are still with us because they have been treated so horrifically that they only let John near them, not even I can go near their compound. Without John they would all have had to be put down."  
"I'm not gonna lie, that could be a problem. I take it they aren't left caged or chained, they have somewhere they can run?"  
"Don’t be insulting Colonel. They have several dozen acres of woods with a river and plenty of shelter, all enclosed with two layers of electric fencing, with 24/7 canine patrols between them, they are safe and happy in their home, and the general public are safe from them."  
"Right. Could that be re-produced on the Mountain? We own the whole thing, and it could be argued it adds to security."  
"You do understand that your own people would not be able to set foot in their compound, wherever you put it, ever again? None of the dogs were neutered after we rescued them, I have no idea how many offspring they have produced in the last three years. John?"

Harold looked directly at John until he looked back then he spoke.

"How many babies are in the compound now? How many puppies?"  
"26 of the originals survive, 12 pups, only the Alpha pair have breed."  
"Thank you John."

Harold smiled up at John, showing his love in his tone and every action, John tipped and tilted his head, baring his throat, completely ignoring the others presence, not caring if they saw how submissive he was to Harold. Harold cupped his face gently in one hand before turning back to their guests, impressed that not one of them showed any sign of discomfort or surprise at John's behaviour.

"Good boy. 38 animals Colonel, and every one of them was too far gone for even John to help them accept human interaction, I can't imagine the puppies will be much more sociable. They also need a good supply of prey, we don’t feed them any more, we had to help a few of them to start with but they all hunt for their own food now, they are a feral pack."  
"As long as we keep them fenced in above the emergency exits… or maybe not. If we reinforce the fencing around the compound, then add a new double fence, like you have now, just above the areas we actually use, we can protect the entire outside of the mountain for the price of a few rabbits, maybe some deer, are they big enough for deer?"  
"There were several Doberman's, German and Caucasian Shepard's, a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, a Tibetan Mastiff, a pair of Akita Inu, like Eugene and Tomo but not so lucky, three Kuvasz, a few Newfoundland's and Norwegian Elkhound's and half a dozen Alaskan Malamute, not including the puppies, we rescued them from a puppy farm breeding for dog fights, they can handle deer."

Sam shuddered as the number of 'dangerous' breeds in the list grew, wondering if it was really a good idea to have that many feral animals right on their doorstep.

"Sir, is that a good idea?"  
"Why not? We don’t use the land, it's nothing but a security hazard, we can't flatten the lot so we can't provide surveillance safely or consistently, it is the weakest point of the Complex. It would also be the perfect kick up the complacency for your dad and his pals to get those crystals to us so we can put in new escape routes, leave the old ones open as decoys for any foothold, they get that far, they become kibble, win-win!"  
"Sir!"  
"What?"  
"Aside from the obvious, what if the dogs get hurt?"  
"I assure you Major Carter, a 38 strong Pack will have very little difficulty with anything that has to climb out of those emergency exits, and unfortunate as it is, it is in the nature of animals to die, if they go protecting their Pack and territory they will consider it well done."  
"How could you possibly know that?"  
"I asked John. If you like I'm sure we can make an appointment for you to debate it with him, but we have more important things to do right now than worry about it. I am willing to visit your Mountain, as long as you are willing to have the six of us, Mr Fusco was not wrong about that, and we will give you one week. I deplore threats, however, many people will know where we are going, you would not like the outcome if we were to be delayed against our will."  
"Mr Finch, I don’t expect your trust, I do expect a little respect. This could be very good for all of us, or it could go to Hell in a hand basket, if you continually assume the worst, I gotta be honest, I have a nasty habit of living down to peoples expectations, and people questioning 'my' morality really pisses me off, so do us all a favour and keep the pessimism to a minimum, and remember I'm Air Force, not CIA."

Harold listened politely until Jack finished, then he smiled.

"I would never question your personal integrity Colonel O'Neill, I know everything there is to know about you, more than your government probably do in fact, and I make it a habit not to ignore facts, your superiors on the other hand, are a very different matter. The President, nice as he may be, has a four year term, what will the next one be like? Will he accept the undead and mythological 'beasts' in top secret military installations? Will he protect an ex CIA operative they couldn’t 'retire' properly? Because this President is only here for the next three years, seven if he's really lucky, this is our lives, so your personal feelings be damned, I will take every precaution I can to make sure that we can leave when we want to, every time we want to, and that we wont be hunted down, again, later. The best way to ensure that is to start as we mean to go on, and make sure everyone else knows it too. I also know what Mr Teal'c was put through when he arrived on this planet."

Teal'c took a step toward Harold and John, slowly, with his hands clasped behind his back and his head down respectfully, stopping as soon as he had their attention.

"Harold Finch, you show your self to be a man of great integrity, you protect your own, as you should, you treat your animals with the same love and respect as you do your people, you are a man I would wish to call friend. O'Neill is also a man of great integrity and dedication to his people, he saved me from a life of slavery, debasement and hatred, of my self as much as my masters, for doing what I knew to be wrong, though I had little choice. I wanted to live so I bent to their will, and I have no excuse, merely an abiding need to atone for everything I helped them do. I see the same need in John Reese, though I know not the specifics, I know his former masters treated him as ill as did mine. I know he wishes I would not speak of such, but my friends have never served under such a master, so long as I live they never will, but though they can not understand, I do. I understand the lengths to which you will go to protect your John Reese, your mate, and I understand more the lengths to which he will go to protect you. You need to know this, we will do the same. O'Neill not only saved my life, he invited me into his home after I turned on my masters, though he had every reason and right to kill me, he gave me a home and a purpose instead, much as you have for John Reece. These people are my family, they have stood between me and their government, even when I was compromised, brainwashed O'Neill called it, and fought against them, they did not give up on me, and they never will. If you give us the chance, if you are loyal to us, we will be so to you, without fail."

Harold look at the rest of the team as Teal'c finished speaking, raising an eyebrow at their stunned looks until Daniel cleared his throat.

"Sorry, we've never heard Teal'c say so much in one go before, wow."

Harold smiled and glanced at John who was still staring at the wall, but his shoulders had relaxed just slightly, letting him know he was much more settled than he had been. 

"John is equally loquacious, and generally worth listening to when he does speak."

Jack smiled, he could smell that John was relaxing, though it barely showed physically, and he was impressed with the mans self control.

"You know, if I could even get you two as guest speakers for a few days I would be so happy, but I really want you with us, and I don’t know how I can persuade you, all I can do is invite you to come and see what we do, decide from there, and if you want we can take you to Atlantis and introduce you to the Pack there, I just don’t know how that would work with two Alpha's in one territory." 

Harold looked at John, he hadn't reacted to the mention of other Lycans but Harold knew he had never met one of his own, so this was a mixed blessing at best.

"I'm not sure how that would work, but I would like John to have the opportunity to meet others of his own kind. I think neutral territory would be a sensible precaution."  
"Which sounds like a great idea until you realise there are seven wolves in the Pack, including the head of the Military and his XO, and the others are Security Force or military, their human Alpha is the Head of the Security Force, and the head of the expedition is a vampire with exceptionally tight ties to them, that wont be letting them meet anyone without him there, and with him come the rest of the 'British Contingent', including two Cambion."  
"Two what?"  
"Cambion, child of an Incubus, I'm sure they'll explain, but as a rule of thumb, if it's a scary myth, it's true, get used to it, and how you have managed to work with the Green Beret's, Delta Force and the CIA and never come across any of this I really don’t know."  
"John worked mostly in urban areas."  
"And? So do many supernatural beings, and the Hunters that chase them. Hunters are generally very black and white by the way, don’t think you can explain what you are and be treated like a 'human being' because they wont see it that way, they rarely listen, and those that do will probably still kill you just in case, so disable and evade, then let me know, I'll deal with them. We work with Dean and Sam Winchester, they were raised Hunters but they are trainable, they know the difference between 'not human' and 'monster', especially since Dean found out he's an Immortal, and yeah, that's pretty much like it sounds, and he has a real serious problem with aggressive dogs, so if he gets funny, and I've been told you will notice, just run, don’t try to help or stop him, just get everyone clear till one of his can get there or he calms down. How about we all go to the base in Salt Lake City, it's not on Atlantis, but it's not far for them to get back if any of them are needed, so it doesn’t screw up their day any more than necessary, what do you say? Or would you rather some time to pack and stuff?"

Harold thought it was nice that Jack had given them such an easy out, because it wouldn’t be out of the way to pack some clothes, take a day to make arrangements, but he knew John, knew he had to get this over with or it would only get worse for him, for them both really, he didn’t need the anticipation hanging over him either and Jovan agreed, they also both knew Luka could take over for John if it got too much. He looked at John for a long time but for once, John refused to look back and he wouldn’t push in front of the others.

"There is a dog friendly café at the end of the road, you can return in an hour. Good day."

Harold turned and walked back out into the yard, heading for the office they had been in before Sam had turned up, John following exactly one step behind and to the side.

Jack sighed and shook his head as Sam opened her mouth to speak, before leading them all out the door to go and find that café, knowing John needed the time and Harold needed to look after him.

************ 

When they reached the office Harold looked carefully at John for a long while then spoke quietly.

"Bâm. Strip."

The four dogs went to their mat in the outer office and laid down quietly, guarding them. John sighed in relief and stripped out of his clothes quickly and quietly, neatly hanging it all over the back of a chair before standing at ease, hands clasped behind his back, head up and eyes forward, his shoulders were relaxed and the tension lines around his eyes were fading already, which was more than enough proof this was the right idea, even if he hadn't already known it. Once John was almost done Harold unzipped his trousers and slid them down just enough for John to get to him easily, then sat in his chair.

"On your knees John, get me good and wet precious."

John was on his knees and on Harold before he had even finished speaking, licking and sucking his cock gently, knowing this was to give his brain time to switch gears, not for Harold, though he would certainly enjoy it. Harold let him continue until the tension had melted out of him, then tapped him on the shoulder.

"Enough now, over the desk."

John smoothly rose to his feet and turned to present his self over their desk, it was solid oak and specially made to be exactly the right height for John to lay over comfortably for as long as Harold wanted him there, without unnecessary discomfort. Harold took in the way John was gripping the edge of the desk and knew he needed more than just sex, so he pulled the paddle out of the draw at the same time as the lube. 

"Breath."

That was all the warning John got, or needed, before the paddle landed, hard. John didn’t tense, or gasp or flinch in any way, he just sighed. Harold smiled and continued, landing even blows across the whole of his ass and the tops of his thighs, reddening the whole area lightly without going so far as to impact Johns movement later, neither of them would risk impeding Johns ability to defend them if the need should arise, that was reserved for when they knew they would be on the Homestead for a few days, protected by the whole extended Pack. When he was happy with the even colour Harold stopped and used the minimum lube he knew he could get away with in the situation, knowing John would still be showing signs of the fun they had had earlier in the day, then he pushed right in to the hilt, smiling again as John whined. 

"Good boy."

Harold took his time, he was in no hurry and even if he had been he wouldn’t have rushed John, this wasn’t really about sex, it wasn’t about 'getting off', it was about reassuring John of his place, making sure he knew where he was wanted, that Harold needed him as much as he needed Harold, that his place was secure, what ever might happen, it was all about love, not sex. He kept up a steady, hard rhythm as he waited for John to finally relax fully beneath him, only once he had did he sped up, pounding into John hard and fast, making sure he would feel it for the rest of the day at least, to give him that constant reminder of just who he belonged to, and that that wasn’t about to change any time soon. Though he still didn’t rush, he didn’t hold his self back either, and as he was ready to climax he let John finish first as he always did.

"Cum."

John whined louder and came, shaking all over in the aftermath, clamping down around Harold's cock and dragging him over the edge, which in turn set him off again as he was filled with his Alpha's cum, it was the same every time and never failed to humble Harold, just how much he affected his lover was always a thing of beauty to him. He stood still just allowing his self to come down slowly for a long while, then he slowly pulled out of John. 

"Thank you Alpha."  
"I know precious, just remember you belong to me and everything will be fine."  
"There are seven of them, and their Alpha."  
"And there are five of you and your Alpha, I'd put money on us every time, but we can take Tiny, and Manny will still back you."  
"And if they bring guns into it?"  
"Do you really think I would be considering going if I thought for one moment that they were the type to allow that, or worked with others that would? You know me better than that John, and I know you better than to think you believe it is a possibility either. It would be no weakness to allow Luka to take the reigns for a while. Or we can just go back to the Homestead and forget this ever happened if you want to, this one is up to you precious, I will back you every step of the way but we only go if you want to meet others of your own kind."

John finally looked up at him.

"May I?"  
"Of course precious, whatever you wish."

John rose from the table, sighing as he felt his Alpha's cum moving inside him, smelling him so strongly everywhere, all over his self, it had done exactly as Harold knew it would, centring John and comforting him enough to allow him to think clearly. John turned and set Harold's clothes straight before guiding him back to his chair and kneeling between his legs again, resting his head on his thigh, settling for maximum comfort before he began speaking again. 

"I want to know. Why Lycan, not werewolf? How many others do they know? What are they like? Do I want a Pack like myself? Am I just settling with our Pack because there is nothing better? Will some instinct I know nothing of pull me to them, away from you? Can I risk that? I can't, but I have to know Harold, I need to know, but how can I take that chance, how can I risk you?"  
"Oh my precious boy! Don’t ever worry about that! You know the boys and I would kill them all before we let them take you away!"

John stared up at him for a long moment, finally realising that he meant that exactly as he had said it.

"You would…?"  
"Oh John, what they did to you. How you trust me as much as you do is a miracle I will never get over, but yes, I would level the country before I let anyone take you, just as I know you would for me. I love you no less, am no less devoted and obsessive than you are for me, you just have more opportunities to show it. You have saved me so many times John, the only way I can show the same is to buy you anything you want, except nuke's, to give you all you need, and take you down whenever you need it, to mark you and scent you and show you in my own small ways that I would do anything for you, and I would die without you, because life would not be worth living alone."

John stared up at him with open adoration and dedication in his eyes, and Harold realised that between each of their emotionally constipated problems, he had never actually said any of that before in plain English, and he could have kicked his self for the oversight, and would later, but for now just basked in the joy of his lover as he finally realised exactly how he felt for him. John's smile could have lit the Eastern Seaboard as he launched his self up, grabbing Harold's head and kissing him long and hard, shaking and whining as he couldn’t contain his joy. Harold chuckled, the joy was contagious as his lover finally realised just how necessary he was. There was a single bark from the front office from Eugene, letting them know they had friendly company, so Harold pulled back, still smiling, grabbed a piece of paper and pen and wrote something down before folding the paper.

"Get dressed Love, let's go meet some new friends shall we?"

John laughed out right at the sarcastic optimism, knowing Harold was naturally almost as optimistic as he was. Harold walked out through the front office and saw O'Neill in the yard, on his knees fussing the dogs and generally having fun. He looked up and smiled as Harold got to him.

"They are beautiful, and brilliantly trained too. You are a lucky man Harold Finch, especially for a guy that doesn’t exist, or exists too many times, depends how you look at it I suppose."

Harold smiled as John walked up silently behind him, only knowing he was there because of the dogs reactions to him.

"I am, yes. And I did exist, but I died several years ago, it was the only option I had that allowed me to remain alive. Luckily I have always been paranoid, so I didn’t loose everything when I died, in fact I lost very little of monetary value, just everything I thought was of real value at the time, because the man that died was never actually born, he was one of many aliases I had even then, now I have many more, and a few of them have more money than God."  
"He means that, he gave me an identity with more money than the Vatican. Have you ever bid $10,000,000 at an auction Colonel? It's liberating. And fun."

Jack didn’t even try to hold in the laughter, and it only got worse at the look Harold threw at John for that last comment.

"I have it because I don’t throw it away Mr Reese! Now, I think it's about time to get on with it, don’t you? I take it you still have access to the Prometheus Colonel?"  
"No better way to travel!"  
"Indeed. Then you can take us to one of our homes first."

He handed the folded paper to Jack with a tiny smile.

"These are the exact co-ordinates for the middle of the main room in the Manhattan apartment, it is a clear space more than large enough for four people at a respectable distance from each other, you can send someone with us to call you when we are ready, I will not be meeting anyone else today while so shabbily attired."

Jack grinned at him as he rose to his feet and took the paper.

"The others are up there already, what about the dogs? How many are we taking?"  
"The usual suspects John?"   
"As you wish Harold."

Harold smiled at him, knowing that he really had got through to his lover. The four dogs sat in their usual places at their feet and Jack smiled at them before handing Harold six tags.

"These are trackers, they make it easier for the Prometheus to tag onto you, they are also an emergency beacon if you press and hold the centre, and if they are broken the ship will automatically note their final position and alert us, someone will immediately be sent down to check on you, lots of armed someone's, so please put them safe before you get athletic, cause that is just embarrassing all round. The dogs tags are specifically made for animals, they are quite hardy, you would have to really work at it to break them, and they wont come off once you put them on a collar. We can provide them for all your dogs if you want us too in the future, or you can all go sub-dermal like our people do if you ever want to, the offer is there, I wont mention it again but you can at any time if you want."

Harold raised an eyebrow but handed three of the tags to John then put his own in his pocket and attached one each to Tomo and Eugene's collars as John did the same for Bear and Ursa. Jack grinned as they worked, recognising it as the sign of trust that it was, having been fully prepared to have the offer politely refused. Once they were finished he called the ship and they were transported up. Jack waited for the fireworks once they were on the ship but the two men just looked around quickly and though the dogs startled, they settled as soon as they looked at John and Harold. Jack shook his head in disbelief.

"You know, I really want you training all our dogs from now on, please? Those four are as bomb proof as you are!"

John allowed a tiny grin to tilt the corner of his lips.

"Vzorný.(Perfect) Where do you want them to wait?"

John looked to the ships Captain.

"Gentlemen, this is Colonel Ronson, Captain, Mr Reese, Mr Finch, Bear, Ursa, Tomo and Eugene. The dogs are perfectly trained, where do you want them out of the way, on the bridge, where they can see us when we get back here."

The Captain was obviously not overly impressed by the idea of four unknown, big, dogs on his bridge while their owners left, but he didn’t argue.

"Right there, in the corner, it's the least used floor space."  
"Thank you Captain."

John pointed to the corner and the dogs immediately settled their selves, sat neatly in as little space as they could. John smiled at them.

"Aros, stráž.(Stay, guard.) if anyone pulls a weapon, they will disarm them, if anyone aims a weapon at them, they will remove arms with prejudice. If you ignore them, they will ignore you. I am warning you, because they wont. They will respect your home if you respect them."  
"I understand Mr Reese, we will treat them as we would any guest."  
"Thank you Captain."  
"Right, drop us off here please, I'll call you asap, shouldn’t be long."

Jack handed the paper to the Captain with a smile and they soon found their selves in their apartment. Harold looked quizzically at John, the first real emotion Jack had seen on either of them.

"What did I miss? The Colonel said Ronson was a Colonel, why call him Captain?"  
"Because he's the Captain of the ship, that supersedes rank."  
"Ah, thank you John, why don’t you get me the grey Saugus Joseph sent me last week, yours will probably end up on the floor, so lets stick to the Armani shall we? The black will be fine with the steel blue shirt, and wear the new shoes, I know you kept the old ones, Bear found them last week."

John smiled and ducked his head sheepishly at Harold's look, he liked the shoes, even if Harold didn’t. Jack couldn’t help noticing that smile, it changed an already really good looking face to almost angelic and he couldn’t help thinking of his Sire.

"Go on, get to it, shower first. Colonel, is there anything I can offer you?"  
"No thanks."

Harold waited until John had closed the bedroom door behind his self then turned to Jack, studying him closely.

"You have all been very circumspect about our relationship Colonel, now would be the time to get it out of your system."  
"Nothing to get Mr Finch. You are his Alpha, you're obviously his Dom too, none of us would comment on another's relationship as long as everything is safe and consensual, and those that recognise it don’t care. Carter might blush if she ever figured it out, but you'd have to be pretty blatant for that, she didn’t notice you were lovers until it was pointed out, Danny might get curious enough to ask about the 'lifestyle', but if he gets personal it'll only be from an academic curiosity, he just wants to know everything about everything. The Atlantis Pack are free and easy between the Beta's apparently, so don’t be insulted if they offer, they use it for fun and to strengthen Pack bonds and don’t play with outsiders, though they have claimed most of the original expedition as Pack, so being invited to play is like a major diplomatic treaty, non-aggression pact type thing from them. You two are the Alpha pair though, even if John is Beta, so they might not, their Alpha doesn’t play, he and his mate are human though, and aggressively monogamous, so don’t be surprised either way, and don’t be insulted either."  
"As long as they aren't insulted when we turn them down if they do offer, everyone will be happy, because if anyone touches John I tend to get a little unreasonable."  
"Understandable, I used to be the same about Danny, then I died, things changed."  
"I would imagine they would, they did when I died. Now I am going to dress, as John is out of the shower, we wont be long Colonel."  
"Call me Jack, it gets confusing on base other wise."

Harold just quirked his eyebrow before joining John in the bedroom. He stripped his clothes off and threw them in the laundry basket then called John over to him as soon as he was dry. He pulled John into his arms and held him tight as John soaked in his smell, rubbing them together to make sure they both smelt of the other despite John's shower. Once John was happy with the smell again he helped Harold dress, not because he had to, just because he loved doing it, then Harold helped him dress too, making sure even their clothes smelt of each other, nobody with a decent sense of smell would miss that they were together. Harold pulled John in to a deep, claiming, devouring kiss, then gave them both one last check over before nodding and going back to the front room.

Jack couldn’t help grinning as he was hit with a brick wall of 'mine!' pheromones as soon as the door opened, the pair of them stank of each other again, even though he knew John had showered and could just about smell the shampoo he had used, which was of course the same as Harold used, and they both looked bloody fantastic. 

"Got your tags?"  
"Of course Colonel, not being brain-dead morons. We also have our own phones and communicators our guests helped us develop, please let us know if they interfere with any of your equipment."  
"Of course. Prometheus, three to beam up!"

John almost grinned at that, he really did think Jack was charming, and he could see them becoming true friends if they were given the chance, it would be nice to have a new friend, a true friend. Lionel was a good man but neither could get past the beginning of their 'working relationship', especially as Lionel was still working for them. Harold was his first real friend, but they were so much more now, it would be nice to have an uncomplicated friend he could meet for a beer, or just talk to. Harold was watching him and grinning, he had obviously seen something on his face that told him what he was thinking, he and Jovan were probably planning how to set up a play-date already. John rolled his eyes at them as they were surrounded by white light again and found their selves back on the ship. John looked straight to the dogs and smiled to find them exactly where and how he had left them, just as the Captain had promised. 

"Vzorný. Thank you again Captain. Ymuno.(With me)"

The bridge crew watched in amazement as the dogs instantly responded to the quietly spoken command and took their places at John and Harold's heel's.

"No problem Mr Reese, they were the perfect guests, they can stay any time, we almost forgot they were there. I don’t suppose there is any way you could give a demonstration some time? We would all love to see what they can do."

Ronson had been honestly impressed by the dogs, they had done exactly as John had said they would, sat where they were told and watched everything around them without moving. 

"Harold made a demonstration video for perspective adoptee's, but I'm sure if the Colonel can give us a moment, and all weapons remain holstered, they have been good, so I don’t mind letting them play with you for a while."

Harold smirked as he watched their eyes light up, he couldn’t wait either.

"Ok by me, Lester said they would join us at 21:00, we have time."  
"Thank you Colonel. Where would be best for you Mr Reese?"  
"Here will be fine Captain, do you have any requests, or should I just let them play?"  
"Oh, anything you don’t mind, we were really just very impressed with them."  
"Thank you. I would feel much better if you would have everyone put their weapons outside the room, I know how unconventional that is, but if anyone aims a weapon at them, they wont wonder if it was an accident, they will disarm them, possibly literally. Other than that we are good to go when you are."

Ronson thought about it for a while, then looked to Jack, who nodded, if John and Harold had any impure intentions, which would be bloody amazing in the circumstances, there wasn’t much more they could do armed than unarmed, and there were plenty of SF's outside the room. Ronson nodded to his people and they all took their weapons out of the room and left them, many of them were glad they had not long after, because they were trained to reach for a weapon when scared shitless, and they were that when John softly said 'Patet locus' and the dogs became monsters, hurtling around seemingly randomly until they all realised they had been herded right off the Bridge.

"Pax, ymuno."

Suddenly the four dogs were angels again, sat at John and Harold's feet.

"Holy shit!"

Jack almost bust a gut laughing at Ronson after that outburst, the man was usually the model officer, which just proved how unsettling the dogs had been. John had that tiny little tilt to the corners of his lips that showed his version of great pleasure and Harold was beaming, obviously terribly proud of his babies and tickled pink at the big bad military.

"They were left on my bridge!"  
"And they did as ordered, as they always will."  
"Damn! I don’t know if I'm more impressed or terrified! A dozen like these and I would never have to worry about my ship being take over again!"  
"It was taken over before?"  
"Before she was finished, terrorists with ties to the Goa'uld got on as a film crew, which almost everyone fought against in the first place, and launched her early, almost blew her up, on purpose and by accident, trying to hold the government hostage, we stopped them, but it would have been quicker and easier with these guys."  
"We really should talk about improving your security Colonel, in a very serious way. Though I trust you, I really can't trust your systems."  
"You're not the first to point it out, but try getting it past the Finance Committee."  
"I would think they would put no price on the security of a project such as this, with such implications for the entire planet."

Almost everyone on the bridge snorted at that as they carefully made their way back to their stations, and Jack actually chuckled, though there was no humour to it.

"You would think that wouldn’t you? Unfortunately not. Our second year running they tried to shut us down completely, said God would protect us if a 'hypothetical' attack ever came from orbit. We have to fight for every cent we get, though that's easier since Atlantis got back, she bought a bunch of ZPM's with her, they're like mega batteries, three of them run Atlantis, which is the size of Manhattan, held the shield against years of constant barrage, can keep the shields up, everything running safe and secure and fly her from the Pegasus galaxy to here in just over a day, and barely touch their reserves. One will run the Mountain for just about forever at the current power usage levels, including weekly dial ins with Pegasus. Three kept the shield up and the water out at the bottom of the ocean for 10,000 years, along with thousands of necessary minor systems. The Ancients called them Potentia Vis…"

The dogs were suddenly on their feet, teeth bared and very obviously threatening Jack. Everyone on the Bridge froze for the moment it took Reese to speak.

"Pax. Please excuse them Colonel, Captain. That is an unexpected and unfortunate coincidence, that is the Latin word for attack, but can also be translated as energy, force or strength amongst others. You don’t often hear Latin spoken, so it is one of the languages I use regularly for commands, they are also taught to turn the commands back on anyone they haven't adopted that tries to use them, especially that one. On the bright side, you didn’t try to tell them to kill."

That gave everyone pause after the display they had just participated in. 

"Huh. Not bad thinking, on either part, sensible really, except Latin is a derivative of Ancient, so there could be a lot of bleed over. Any chance I could get a list of the Latin words you use so we can avoid them around the dogs?"  
"Certainly, your people have them with their adoption papers, and my apologies again gentlemen, ladies."  
"No need Mr Reese, as the Colonel said it makes sense, it's actually damn good thinking, just an unfortunate coincidence."  
"Getting back to the point, we call them Zero Point Module's, the ZPM's are worth a hell of a lot of money to us, 50 of them could power America for the next few thousand years or so, only our power has been privatised, so we can't actually give it away for free without getting sued, which is about as insane as you like, but we can use it for military and Government purposes, so that is what they intend to do, and as we no longer have to pay the electric bill and we have some to hang over the IOA's heads, we have a lot more leeway. The IOA tried to claim ownership of course, but we pointed out that the Atlantis Expedition was allegedly run by one of their civilians but she almost got them all killed while my Major found and fixed the outpost that makes the ZPM's and bought them back here, and if he doesn’t like them, the AI's that run the place could just kill us all, so they backed off."  
"The city is AI run?"  
"Yes, as well as the outpost, and if you have the ATA gene they talk to you in your head, it's cool."  
"Amazing, has anyone been in touch with Stark?"  
"He invited his self, arrived this morning just in time for the new command team to meet for the first time and figure out if they were going to kill each other. Sorry, figuring out a working hierarchy, just looked like they were trying to kill each other."  
"So are they likely to greet us in a similar manner?"  
"I have no idea! Don’t take this the wrong way, but it would be one hell of a demonstration with these four."  
"Disturbing. Let's try to avoid that shall we? Our babies may seem very human for dogs, but they are dogs, they wont give in unless they are 'made' to or we stop them, and I wont stop them if there is a threat to John."  
"That could be awkward. Sheppard is the second in command of the Pack, maybe we should just get him and John together first, away from everyone else."  
"That could be an idea, only then he would still have to fight in front of the others to get the point across to them, if they act anything like our Pack. John?"  
"All in or nothing, not going twice, you'll stop them if they're at risk, I wont kill for dominance."  
"You wont, it's them I'm worried about."  
"It didn’t get anywhere near that when the pack joined this afternoon, once Becker and Ryan were pinned they rolled over and accepted John and Ronan as the top dogs."  
"But they were becoming one Pack, John isn't here to join them, I wont have another telling John what to do, I am his Alpha, nobody else, I also have no desire to take over their Pack, I have all I need in John and our babies. Have you ever seen wolves fight over territory Colonel?"  
"Once, it didn’t end well."  
"No, it wouldn’t. Which is why I was reluctant to go ahead with this meeting, but John has a right to meet others of his own kind, so what else can I do?"  
"Can they do this human shaped? Not go furry when they meet?"  
"If you think John is any less lethal out of his fur you are sadly mistaken Colonel, the government know how to make the most of a natural talent, I have to give them that much, of course, they then turned it against their selves by sending an incompetent to try to kill him without reason other than greed, so that looses them a lot of it."  
"Ok, we have a room we can seal, with an observation gallery, Sheppard and John in there, everyone else watches but can't reach them."  
"John?"

John shook his head slowly, it just didn’t feel right, that was just a fight between them, not a negotiation between Pack's, there had to be more of them or it just wasn’t going to work, he didn’t know how he knew that, he just did.

"Needs more, if it's one on one, then one of us walks away with control of both Packs, the other will be dead."  
"You don’t want his Pack, why would you fight to the death?"  
"Because he can't have mine."

Jack took a deep breath and reminded his self exactly what they were dealing with, and how Angel would feel if Lester had fought him, one of them would have ended up dead, without a doubt, for exactly the same reason.

"So what the hell do we do? You can't possibly guarantee no two Packs are going to clash, you can't tell me they wipe each other out."  
"No, not if the Packs meet as Packs, if the five of us go in there against his Pack we will fight for equality, not dominance, but if I can't switch back my Pack will fight to the death for me, that is how we train, that is who we are, they don’t have a human mind underneath the instinct, they wont see me go down and back off like I would, they will just fight harder, until his Pack back off and they have cleared the threat to me, which they wont allow if they win, how can I ask that of them just so I can ask someone who might be able to answer, what the hell I am."

Harold sighed as John got more upset, not that anyone else would have realised, and the dogs reacted to it predictably, standing at the ready, already rumbling in discontent. John took a deep breath and pulled his self in, drew everything back behind every wall he could throw up and retreated behind years of interrogation training, leaving Luka to take over. Luka flashed his eyes so everyone would know it was him and smiled sadly at Harold.

"Please accept John's apologies, I'm afraid it is not a good time. Harold, if you would please."

Harold was not particularly pleased by this, though he had expected it, and already knew what he was going to choose, that didn’t make it any easier to think about the possible consequences though. He took a deep breath, blanked his face and turned to Jack. 

"I believe Manny is available? You will need to send Luka back to the shop momentarily to pick up Tiny, then the Packs will meet, there is no other choice."  
"Fair enough. Captain, lets get it done, you ready Luka?"  
"Yes."

Jack didn’t wait for anything else, he handed him a tracking chip for Tiny, nodded to the Captain and Luka was gone.

"As soon as you have a life sign with the second tracker bring them back."  
"We have it now, bringing him back."  
"Patch me through to Atlantis."  
"Channel is open."

The white light shimmered again and Luka was back aboard with Tiny, leaning down and removing his collar, before doing the same for the other dogs, removing each then giving them to them to hold instead.

"Atlantis, this is Colonel O'Neill, patch me through to Lester."  
"So very polite as always O'Neill."  
"No time Lester, we have a Lycan about to hit a melt down up here, you wont need to leave the City after all, can you clear one of the big observation rooms? We need somewhere big, bigger than last time, these two Packs are about to be introduced, if you'll authorise entry to the City."  
"Sounds positively delightful Colonel. You wouldn’t be asking if you didn’t have a damned good reason, which I expect you will share with me as soon as you get here."  
"Absolutely. Send me the co-ordinates for a beam down for the Pack, then one for everyone else at a safe distance, preferably behind walls with a view."  
"That good eh? Well, let the party begin, I'm sending the co-ordinates now, don’t get them the wrong way around, or I will hand you over to the good Doctor."  
"Now that's just cruel! We'll be there in under five, have your boys ready."  
"Consider it done. Atlantis out."

Jack looked at the Harold and sighed again as Teal'c walked onto the bridge with Manny.

"Master Teal'c, we formally petition your permission to lead Manny into battle with his Pack."  
"If he wishes it, I will not interfere."

Luka nodded and looked to Harold, Manny, like all the dogs, knew the difference between John and Luka, even when there was no outward sign that humans could discern, and they didn’t answer to him, so Harold had to ask.

"Hoeden John Manny, hoeden John."

Manny barked once and moved to Luka, who leant down and removed his collar too.

"Now would be a good time to get down there, John is already trying to shift, we have to move now, one way or the other."

Harold knew he meant either let him fight it out or let Luka cut him off from his own body entirely so he couldn’t hurt his self or anyone else. 

"If you could leave the Armani here, it will only upset John if it gets damaged, and he likes that shirt."

Luka grinned and started stripping. At first several of the crew stared in shock, until they realised he wasn’t going to stop, then they turned away or averted their eyes in best 'locker room' manners. Luka was soon bare and waiting for his 'lift'. Harold nodded to him once, then turned to Jack.

"They are ready Colonel, if we could get this over with please?"

Jack didn’t waste time answering, he nodded to the Captain and John and his Pack disappeared, then Jack, Harold and Teal'c followed. 

The first thing Harold noticed was how beautiful the architecture was, then he looked down and found Luka and the Pack. Luka was shuddering repeatedly, and Harold knew it was from trying to hold the shift back, not the cold. Moments later seven men walked into the room as far from the pack as possible, all naked, there was a moment of silent anticipation then all hell broke loose. It was impossible to tell who shifted first, but once they started everyone switched to fur, and then it started flying. John threw his head back and howled, low and loud and more aggressive than Harold had ever seen or heard him before, his Pack joined him, then Sheppard answered in kind with his Pack and they all flew at each other. John and Sheppard headed straight for each other, Charlie held back as far as he could, and Bear and Ursa concentrated on Ronan as the biggest threat outside of Sheppard, everyone else found a 'partner' and fought. 

In the observation room Harold stood between Jack and Teal'c in stiff terror for his Pack, when they were joined by 7 men, all of which looked just as invested in the outcome as he was. 

John knew he had to win this fast, before any of his Pack got hurt, so he forgot finesse, ignored everything he had ever learnt and fell back entirely on instinct, and it worked. He barrelled into Sheppard and found he was considerably stronger than the other wolf, which was a good thing, he could get this done fast. He took Sheppard off his feet a second time about five minutes later and flipped his self almost 180 degrees to pin him to the floor, getting his jaw around his throat in moments and clamping down until Sheppard relaxed, submitting to him unconditionally. Sheppard knew the situation, knew why this man couldn’t afford to loose, and was stable enough to let the fight go. Unfortunately Ronan had lost every one and every thing he had ever held dear, including his planet, and he wasn’t nearly so stable, he couldn’t let go so easily. Bear and Ursa had done a great job tag teaming him, keeping him off balance enough to wear him down, eventually, only he spotted Sheppard on his back and leapt over them, ignoring them entirely in his bid to reach Sheppard. John took the threat for what it was, and reacted, neither was thinking in any way like a human, they were both pure animal, protecting everything they cared about, unable to give in for fear of loosing what little they had, exactly as they had been trying to avoid. The other fights had come to a standstill, every eye in the room and the gallery on Ronan and John as they both fought for their lives, claws and teeth sinking in anywhere they could get them, snarling horrendously, and everyone could see the disaster coming. The two were very closely matched, and in the end it came down to stamina, John just had that little bit more power in him. Finally, after twenty minutes straight of to-the-death style fighting, John got his jaw around Ronan's throat, only Ronan wouldn’t submit. John shook his head in warning. Ronan ignored him, but Harold knew what would come next if someone didn’t intervene, this had happened at the puppy farm they had found, an adult Akita had been 'trained' for security in the grounds, and he wouldn’t submit, he had been so terrorised and abused by his owners that he had lost any sense or ability to give in, John had shaken him in warning twice, the third time he had snapped his neck, he had had no choice, the dog would never have given up, but Ronan wasn’t a dog, he was a Lycan, and Harold couldn’t let John kill him. So he shouted as loud as he could, to startle John with the volume as much as the words.

"Pax! Lawr! John custos!"

John froze as soon as he heard Harold, surprisingly Ronan did too. John didn’t let go, but he didn’t shake again either. Sheppard and his Pack watched every dog in the room stop everything and drop to the floor. Sheppard shifted back to his skin and took a cautious step toward John and Ronan, continuing cautiously once John looked at him, watching his every move, he had already submitted but with John unable to defend his self without letting go of Ronan he was vulnerable, and he growled. Sheppard stopped and dropped to the floor, sliding closer on his belly, making sure to stay in easy sight and move slowly, remaining as submissive as he could until he reached Ronan. He didn’t try to touch John, he rested his head on Ronan's belly, just laid there, doing nothing but relaxing, showing Ronan in the most visceral way he could that it was ok to let it go. Ronan had never claimed to be quick, but he was far from slow, he knew what Sheppard was getting at, and it took him a moment, but he did let it go eventually, relaxing his muscles so he could drop his head back and submit. John held on for a little longer then let go, dropped his head for a moment, then started licking the blood from Ronan's neck, cleaning him up and accepting him at the same time. The whole situation was pretty much what they had been trying to avoid, but the shit had hit the fan dead centre and nothing could be changed now. Sheppard shifted back to his fur and helped clean Ronan, subtly reasserting his own dominance over Ronan, reminding John that he was there and wasn’t going away. Ronan whined an apology to Sheppard for not winning the fight but Sheppard huffed his amusement, none of them had stood a chance against John and they could all see it when they stopped and thought about it. Sheppard took a chance and licked Johns muzzle when they had finished cleaning Ronan, and John allowed it, rubbing his cheek against Sheppard's before letting Ronan up and doing the same to him, sharing their scent, and not complaining when Sheppard did the same. It was a strange and ass-backward way of going about it but by letting Sheppard scent Ronan he was accepting him as an 'almost' equal, even though he had just proven he could easily beat him in a fight, his human mind finally reasserting its self above his instincts, and that was when John started to shake. 

"Get me down there now."

Harold saw John start shaking, had been looking for it, just waiting for the reactions to set in, and now he had to get to him. Jack looked at him, then to Gibbs.

"Don’t stop on my account, I'm not fighting over this."  
"Good, I think we've had enough of all the fisticuffs, let's join them shall we? Chuck, take us down please."

And Harold realised they had transporters on Atlantis too. In moments they were all in the room with the two Packs, the dogs immediately moving to surround Harold as the wolves backed off. Shepard and Ronan stayed where they were with John, only they growled at the stranger heading for him, which John did not appreciate. His hackles rose as he dropped ready to attack, he snarled viciously as soon as they turned on Harold and they both dropped to the floor, presenting their throats and bellies to him as he stalked to Harold and wound around his legs. Harold decided to hell with the suit and dropped to the floor, it only took a moment for John to wrap his self around him with his head on his lap, burying his nose in his belly. Harold started running his fingers through his fur gently before he looked up at the people still stood around him. As soon as they were still the dogs surrounded them, Bear and Ursa wrapped around John, surrounding him, Tomo and Eugene wrapped around Harold's other side, and Manny and Tiny sat just behind them, guarding their backs. As soon as they were settled Sheppard slowly approached them as the human(ish)'s watched carefully. Bear looked Sheppard over, huffed, then ignored him, which he took for a good thing and settled next to him, his nose just brushing against John. Ronan soon joined him, followed by the rest of the Pack, until they were just a mess of fur surrounding Harold. Everyone else looked at Gibbs, who just smirked at Harold.

"Jethro Gibbs, Tony DiNozzo."  
"Harold Finch, John Reese, or as good as, that is how we think of our selves at least. I look forward to working with you."  
"That’s it? All that fighting between them and you just introduce your selves? Why didn’t you just do that to start with?"

Both Alpha's looked at Arthur.

"Wouldn’t have made any difference, they still needed to work it out for their selves. We had hopped they would just meet and decide for equality, unfortunately that wasn’t to be, Mr?"  
"Pendragon. Arthur and Merlin, and yes, but we can get into that later, there are a few others that need to hear that particular speech. Please also allow me to introduce you to Professor Cutter and Mr Hart, and I am James Lester, welcome to Atlantis."  
"Thank you Sir James."

Lester raised his eyebrow at that, Harold quirked his lips in an almost smile.

"Your reputation precedes you, last I heard was more than a few years ago when you suddenly left the Home Office, I never got around to finding you after that."  
"Indeed, that was when I joined the ARC. Cutter, what are you staring at?"

Everyone turned to look at Nick who was staring hard at John, as was Steven.

"Is it just me?"  
"No love, it is not just you, he is definitely."  
"Yeah, that's what I thought."  
"What, exactly, is what you thought Cutter, and damn you for making me use that abomination of a sentence."  
"Our new friend is not a Grey Wolf."  
"As he is, in fact, very grey, I assume you were referring to 'Canis Lupus' as opposed to his colouration."  
"Yes Lester, I was."  
"So what do you think he is, oh great Oracle?"  
"Oh I know he is 'Canis Dirus'."  
"A Dire Wolf? That became extinct around 10,000 years ago."  
"Yes, that one, I would like a chat with him, soon."  
"Yes, I think we all would."  
"I think you can all wait, in fact I know it. I am sat on a cold floor getting fur all over my new suit, Joseph would not appreciate it."  
"Joseph Abboud? I thought I recognised the cut. We do have a conference room available, with seating, if you can escape that is."  
"That depends on Mr Gibbs."  
"Oh, mine will move, don’t worry about that."

As soon as Gibbs spoke all the wolves except Reese looked up at him. Harold smirked.

"Then it will be no problem Sir James. Pax."

All of the dogs moved away from Harold immediately, the wolves moving with them, until it was just Harold and John. Harold sighed when John didn’t move.

"You are being unconscionably stubborn today Mr Reese. I feel we have a long conversation in our future."

John just whined piteously.

"I don’t know what you could possibly think you have to complain about, you won, now move, my back is objecting."

John was up so fast if anyone had blinked they would have missed it, sniffing Harold for a moment before shifting to his skin and being overly solicitous, helping him to his feet and brushing the hairs off his suit, trying to smooth out a few of the wrinkles at the same time, until Harold took his face between his hands and stared into his eyes.

"Mine!"

John sighed and his whole body relaxed as he dropped and tilted his head, no one was surprised when Harold leant in and bit his neck reassuringly, staking his claim in front of everyone. Sheppard looked up at Gibbs questioningly and Gibbs snorted, then cuffed him around the head.

"Not on your life, I'll leave that to Rodney. Talking of, where is he and how did you keep him away this long?"  
"I left him working with Stark and Co. he seems rather besotted with Dr Winchester."  
"Good enough, we should get to the conference room, I take it that's where they left their clothes again?"  
"They seem to, don’t they? And Mr Reese, where would his clothing be?"  
"On the Prometheus, I'll get them sent to the conference room and call Rodney and Stark's lot in too, no point in doing everything twice."  
"Indeed Colonel, lets get on with it then shall we? Chuck, everyone to the conference room please, and let Dr McKay know we are waiting for him. I am ever so glad we had these transporters installed, it will certainly make for easy rescue missions as well as discrete herding. What, exactly, will the rest of the Pack be doing while we talk?"  
"If you have no need of the room they will be happy to stay here for a few hours, they are perfectly house trained, I assure you. Pax, Spelen (play) Bear, Ursa, ymuno."

The dogs immediately went on stand-down, some curling up for a nap, others took a good look around and the rest started playing while Bear and Ursa stood at John and Harold's heel's, everyone watched the previously violent dogs and thought about it for a moment, before they were transported to the conference room. Once they arrived Sheppard and his people wasted no time shifting and dressing, though they were in no hurry either, but John remained plastered to Harold with the two Malinois. Harold sighed as he looked around for John's clothes, spotting them on the table.

"Clothes John, now."

John whined but pulled his self away, straightened his spine and stalked to the table, every inch the deadly predator, looking around the room and daring anyone to say a word, all while looking relaxed and half asleep. He hated being thought of as weak, and he certainly wouldn’t stand for it here. The wolves all dropped their eyes respectfully as he looked at them, except John, who smirked at him cheekily and moved to join him instead, planning to help him dress and get closer while he was at it, but John realised exactly what he was doing and smiled but shook his head regretfully, his instincts were telling him to take what was his and reinforce the pack ties but Harold would not accept that, not even a little bit, so it was best to nip it in the bud. Sheppard whined and pouted but accepted it, Alpha's didn’t generally share, he had offered because John was Beta so he wasn’t sure where they stood, now he was.

Tony grinned slyly at Gibbs out of the corner of his eye, before speaking in a light and careless tone.

"You know, it's a shame we don’t share."

Gibbs growled menacingly and turned on him, Tony laughed joyfully, he couldn’t believe it had actually worked. Gibbs glared and slapped him up-side the head lightly just as the door flew open, starling most of them. A body flew through the door and homed in on Sheppard, it turned out to be a man, and he started patting Sheppard and Ronan down, checking on all the other Lycans while he was at it, talking a mile a minute and touching them everywhere. The Lycans just accepted it.

"Kinky! And in front of the Brit's too! Why aren't I allowed?"

The last was directed at the tall blond next to the shorter black haired man with the Van Dyke that had spoken. The blond gave a deep and heartfelt sigh.

"Behave Tony."  
"But Steve…"  
"No. Now hush for me please, at least let us get the introductions over with before you start."

Tony grinned.

"Can I do the introductions?"  
"No Tony, this is Mr Lester's home, please behave."

Tony grinned again and looked at the taller of the two behind them, getting a huge grin back.

"Ok Pookie!"

Reese actually snorted as he tried to hold in his reaction and failed, the smile slipping out as his shoulders shook in mirth, his hand covering his mouth. Harold stared between him and Stark in stunned awe, he had never seen anyone get a reaction like that out of John before.

"Unbelievable! Congratulations Dr Stark, on top of your many and well deserved accolades you can add 'the only person to ever make John Reese loose his infamous composure', I will have a trophy made and delivered to your New York Tower."  
"Why thank you Harold! And fancy seeing you here, which I'm sure we'll get to soon, but how did I do it so I can repeat it later?"  
"I have no idea. John?"  
"P.O.K.I."

John almost whispered as he spelt the word, still trying to regain his composure so Harold waited a moment then raised his eyebrow in query.

"That is not a word spoken in polite, or mixed, company, I haven't heard it said since I was about four."

Harold knew exactly what that meant.

"Ah, which takes us neatly back to Professor Cutter's question. The explanation is relatively long and complex, though also exceptionally short and simple as John doesn’t actually know what happened his self. Would you like to tell us what the word means first John, then you can explain your origins."

John shook his head, still grinning.

"My hapo would have removed my tongue for saying that much! Suffice to say no one here possesses one, though I dare say many have had reason to enjoy one."

Steve got it, everyone knew Steve got it, because he went bright red and glared at Tony.

"Anthony!"  
"How was I supposed to know? Garfield's best buddy's name is Pookie! What language anyway?"  
"Ainu, my mothers language."  
"You don’t look Japanese."  
"Nor do the Ainu. And my father was Bedouin."  
"So, you speak what? Ainu, Arabic and English and know at least some Latin, what other languages do you speak?"  
"Easier to ask which he does not Colonel O'Neill, I have yet to find one in which John is not at least conversationally fluent."  
"Holy crap! Do not let Danny know if you ever wanna escape."  
"Don’t let me know what?"

Everyone turned to the door as Daniel, Xander and Sam walked in the room.

"Nothing dear!"  
"Jack?"  
"Yes dear?"  
"Enough. Why would I never let John escape?"  
"Sorry John, it was nice knowing you. Harold has yet to find a language he can't speak."

Daniel's eyes lit up with glee as he bounced on his toes.

"Really?"  
"Dr Jackson, you can corner Mr Reese later, the more pertinent question at the moment is why his 'furry' form looks suspiciously like a Dire Wolf?"

John almost sighed as he braced his self for disbelief and a long explanation, only he never got either.

"Because it is. When I was around four I got separated from my tribe during the move to the summer grounds, I found a light shining in the air, I just wanted to touch it, but it wasn’t solid and I went straight through."  
"You came through an Anomaly from the Pleistocene? Why didn’t you go back?"  
"Because it disappeared. You know what it was?"  
"We discovered the Anomalies a few years ago, we worked in the Anomaly Research Centre before Lester was invited here, Merlin said we all had to come, now we know another part of why. Insane as it sounds, that is how we have King Arthur and Merlin with us, yes the actual, magic and all, and no, he doesn’t do parlour tricks. The Anomalies lead to different era's throughout history, known and not, as well as the future. That is how we have an extinct Lycan on our hands."  
"Why Lycan? Why not werewolf?"

All of the Lycans looked at John in shock.

"John has never met another like him other than his mother, that is the only reason we risked coming here, to talk to people who actually know something."  
"Wow, I am so sorry. My mother was killed by Hunters when I was young, I had no contact with other Lycans after that because my father hated her family. Until I met Ronan this year I had been alone, but I had the first ten years with mom and her family. Werewolves are a different creature altogether, they are people that have been infected with a virus that strips them of their humanity and turns them into a beast with the full moon. We are Lycan's, we are a species, a breed, we are born this way, it is a quirk of genetics not a sickness, it can't be caught or spread, it's just what we are."

John gave Sheppard his small quirk of a smile and nodded his thanks. Lorne sat forward a moment later.

"My family's Pack have been around for centuries, if you want to talk about our history or you have any questions we can't answer here, I know my father would be more than happy to help you in any way, and we have a few books we have found over the years that are actually accurate too."  
"Thank you Major Lorne, if I may, I will scan the books and get them back to you as soon as possible."  
"You are most welcome Mr Finch, anything to help."  
"I appreciate the position you've been in Reese, and how much you want to talk to these guys, but there are a few things we really need to sort out, like which Lycan exactly is in charge of this Pack now?"

Everyone not furry looked at Jack then turned to look between Sheppard and John. Lester smirked at Gibbs for a while before looking at Finch, trying to read the man. The Pack all looked straight at Reese. Jack nodded and sighed deeply.

"That's what I was afraid of. If the Government or the IOA get wind of this there will be hell to pay, not that many of them know about the furry issues, but Hammond does, and if he thinks you are a threat to the Program he will deal with it."

All of the Lycans glared at Jack and bared their teeth. He pulled back and raised his hands in surrender.

"Hey! Don’t shoot the messenger! You all know about Operational Security, you know Hammonds first job is to protect his people. How would you react to an unknown outside threat taking over your people, violently! If I hadn't damn near dragged him here myself 'I'd' be looking to put a bullet in his head right about now, and so would any of you in any other circumstances. Mr Finch here doesn’t exist, he has about thirty aliases and a few of them have more money than God, he gave Reese an alias with more money than God! He spent 10 million on a bunch of letters from Einstein! For no purpose that we can see."  
"He was a very interesting man, and I was getting close to a mark."  
"Right, 10 million worth?"  
"How much is a life worth?"  
"Right, ok, that I get. Point remains, you were considered dead by the CIA until a few years ago, then they found you, they are still looking for you. I can change a name, an identity, but even I can't change your fingerprints, they will have them on paper file, even if you can scrub the electronic records."  
"Which is why I haven't. The program was written a long time ago Colonel, but there is no point in me implementing it until I can physically get someone inside their main files to swap out the paper version, so it will have to wait."  
"Unless you change his 'actual' fingerprints, instead of the records."

Everyone stopped and looked at Merlin, who just looked at John.

"Nothing I know of works permanently without a skin graft, and that means taking someone else's, which I wont do."  
"Understandable, but I can do it. I know magic has been breed out of people, I know you no longer believe, but I am the Old Religion, let me gift you this, for my friends, because they want you here, to stay, however accidental the situation is, they want you to stay, and so do you."  
"I wont take over Sheppard's position here."  
"We wouldn’t let you if you tried. The original Head of the Expedition tried to take over and we didn’t let her, we wont let anyone else, either. But this isn't about the Expedition, it's about the Pack. John only just found Gibbs, and now you two are here messing it up again, I don’t have a bloody clue what I'm supposed to do now! I don’t even have quarters for us all!"  
"Breath Rodney."  
"Easy for you to say!"  
"You think? I just spent a year in Hell trying to keep it together long enough to keep you all alive! You have no idea how hard it is trying to act like an Alpha! I hate it! I lost everything the day my mother was murdered, Dave refused to even acknowledge that we were Lycan, dad didn’t know and he wouldn’t let her family anywhere near us! I finally found you, then Ronan. We get back here and the bastards 'promote' me! They wont even give me a C.O. and you refuse to tell me what to do! I finally find Gibbs and screw that royally! Thought he already knew about us cause Tony called me a 'pup'. My Pack has gone from two and you to eight, two Alpha's and you! What the hell am 'I' supposed to do?"

Rodney was staring at him, mouth open trying to figure out what he could say to help, to sooth John even a little, John never raised his voice like that, or spoke that fast, but Gibbs beat him to it.

"What you're told. Finch and I are in charge here, not you, you do as you're told, and nothing more, understood?"

Rodney was gearing up to really loose his temper over that, to tell Gibbs exactly what he could do with his bullshit, macho attitude, but he was looking at Sheppard and saw the relief written all over his face. Reese waited until John had acknowledged Gibbs then he stalked slowly forward, looking more predatory than any human had a right too. Sheppard's eyes flew wide and he felt like every muscle had turned to stone as he finally understood the term 'petrified', he had, in a moment of very human fear and annoyance with Rodney, forgotten exactly how quickly this Lycan had taken him down, and how close he had come to killing Ronan. Reese circled him silently, the whole room seemed to have taken on and understood at least some of what was happening here.

"You forget so easily pup? Do you need a reminder?"

Sheppard honest to god squeaked! Reece had stopped right behind him and spoke softly in his ear, the fact that he spoke so quietly and in such a soft pleasant tone just made it more terrifying. Sheppard thanked the gods his bladder was empty and he didn’t have to fight this man for real, he was sure just the thought would kill him, let alone the attempt. Every other Lycan had curled in on their selves, making their selves as small as possible trying not to attract Reese's attention, even Ronan knew better after their fight.

"Do you?"

Reese's voice was still so mild, but there was no mistaking the threat, even Rodney was struck silent.

"No Magister."  
"Good boy. Does anyone else require a reminder?"  
"No Magister!"

The voice of every Lycan resounded in unison. Reese nodded, still quiet and controlled, the very picture of relaxed peace, unless you were in the room with him and could feel the control vibrating through him, could hear the contained violence in his soft even voice, the very lack of a threat was the biggest threat of all. As soon as he had everyone's honest submission he relaxed, and though you couldn’t see it, the room suddenly felt lighter and everyone released the breath they had been holding, half of them without even noticing. Sheppard slumped in relief and buried his head under Reese's chin, getting as close as he could to the man, sighing in pleasure as he was wrapped in strong arms. Of course, Stark couldn’t leave the tension alone for long.

"Fuck me! Here endeth the first lesson!"

Dean and Steven snickered quietly, neither of them could help it as relief replaced adrenalin. 

"Tony."

Steve sighed as he shook his head in exasperation. Tony just looked at him innocently, not even trying to hide just how hard he was. 

"Oh my god are you people trying to kill me? I'm having a heart attack here! I survived a year of hell in Pegasus and Wraith and Genii and god alone knows what else and you're going to kill me now we're supposed to be safe! Don’t all rush to help! Dying here!"  
"You're making too much noise to be dying."  
"You've clearly never seen anyone burn to death, that's louder."  
"Try trampled by a heard of dinosaurs, that can get loud."  
"Leg bitten off by a T-Rex, he was loud."  
"My god you are so twisted! What? Are you gonna compare torture techniques next? Is that what you soldiers do for fun?"  
"Rodney."  
"Your life has just been ripped to shreds and I'm dying of a heart attack and they do this? What kind of animals are they?"  
"Rodney, please."  
"John?"

Nobody but Ronan could believe the switch from paranoid ranting to worried lover at Sheppard's quiet plea, even after everything they had seen, those that 'knew' Rodney were still stunned that he was even capable of being caring. Sheppard was still clinging to Reese who was rubbing soothingly at his back, still holding him close even as they both watched Rodney, Reese more warily, this was a human he didn’t know that was extremely important to his Pack but not Alpha, it was odd and unsettling and just plain bothersome. Rodney threw a quick glare at Reese, daring him to complain, as he quickly moved to Sheppard and awkwardly petted him while he stayed attached to Reese, though he snuck a hand out and wrapped it around Rodney's shirt so he couldn’t leave. Rodney leant in and spoke softly in his ear, still doing his best to comfort him.

"Don’t worry sweetheart, I've got you, I've got you, you're still mine, I wont let them take you from me."  
"Nobody wants to take him from you. We didn’t come here to take over the Pack, it just happened that way."  
"You came here with your huge mutt's and it wasn’t to take over?"  
"No, I came here with 'my' Pack, to meet your Pack, I didn’t even bring Collis and Monty."  
"Who?"  
"Our beautiful pair of Tibetan Mastiffs."

Reese allowed everyone a moment to consider Harold's answer and get over the horror.

"Emotions got a little carried away and then your second challenged me after your first submitted, I couldn’t, I'm sorry, but I couldn’t let that go. I don’t understand why, but I couldn’t."  
"It was a meeting, just two Packs deciding on territory, and you won. Ronan is insanely protective of Sheppard though, he wasn’t challenging you, he was protecting his friend and Magister. It would have been much worse if Mr Finch hadn't intervened."

Everyone looked at Lorne as he spoke, appreciating that he knew what he was talking about from experience, having grown up in an established Pack. 

"So why didn’t that mess with the Pack dynamics?"  
"Because the Pack is already settled, Reese beat Sheppard, there was nothing else to decide. The only problem was Ronan stepping over the line, in the simplest terms, he needed putting in his place, but he wouldn’t give in, so Reese would have eventually killed him to avoid destroying the Pack. From the reports I've read, what little there is of them, Ronan has been alone and hunted for the last six or seven years, and Sheppard saved him from that, gave him a home and a Pack, he probably couldn’t help it either, he had to protect his 'saviour', equally, Reese couldn’t allow one of Sheppard's subordinates to get away with challenging him, he had to put him in his place or it would have ripped the Pack apart, at best. Mr Finch, his Alpha, stepping in allowed them to stop and think, for want of a better term, it also gave Sheppard time to show Ronan that he was ok and happy to submit to Reese, to prove that all was still well and safe, that allowed Ronan to give in, something I'm betting he has only done once in the last seven years, I'm proud to call him Pack. I can't wait till everyone is settled and I can introduce you all to my family, they are going to be so proud I found such a strong and diverse Pack."  
"So the Pack is ok? Everyone knows where they stand and everything? But what if Gibbs and Mr Finch disagree? What then?"  
"That is something they will have to figure out between them, I've never heard of a Pack with two Alpha's that weren't a pair, let alone two human Alpha's. if they were both Lycan they would have fought with their Packs and it wouldn’t be an issue, but as it is, I don’t have a clue."  
"You know, they are both adults, I'm pretty sure they can figure it out without fighting."  
"Personally, I think Gibbs and Reese should fight it out, just so everyone knows where they stand."

Everyone turned to look at Stark's overly innocent expression with varying degrees of disbelief.

"Please ignore him. Tony, that isn't funny or helpful. This is about the hierarchy of the Pack, not your personal entertainment."  
"What? I just think…"  
"Nah you don’t, you just want to see two hot guys fighting it out, preferably all hot and sweaty and writhing on the floor. Just ask Nick and Steve to go at it later, but let me know when so I can bring the camera."  
"Dean."  
"Yes Bruce?"

Dean answered sweetly while batting his eyelashes. Bruce held in the smile.

"Don’t encourage him."  
"Yes Bruce."

Bruce smiled at Dean who still had a huge grin on his face from the banter with Tony. Gibbs just looked at them for a moment, then looked at Tony, completely blank faced. Tony, being Tony, refused to back down, even though every instinct in him was begging him to roll over and present his throat, or preferably his ass, to Gibbs, it really was lucky he was so happy and fulfilled with Steve and Nick or he could have really embarrassed his self surrounded by so many unbelievably hot alpha-males. Steve sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Mr Gibbs, please don’t take anything he says seriously, unless it's work related, we are trying but we have a lot of years of bad habits to get through, and unfortunately the lack of a brain-to-mouth filter is one of the worst and most persistent. Tony, behave, now!"

Tony took one last opportunity to smirk at Gibbs, just to make sure he knew he was only letting it go because Steve had told him, then he turned a huge smile on his lover.

"I'm be-ing-have! When's Nick getting here anyway?"

That was all it took to let Steve and the rest of their team know that Tony was feeling very unhappy and out of his depth right now, they all pulled in closer, surrounding Tony in what would be considered a subtle manner in most other surroundings, but with this group was painfully obvious. Lester sighed.

"I think it's about time for tea, or coffee for the masses."  
"Yeah, and get back to our earlier discussion. Someone will fill you in on anything you don’t pick up later, but now we have met, I can clarify a few things. Gibbs, you will be answering to Lester, he will deal with anyone else. Once a vampire has taken responsibility for a city, they 'will' protect it with everything they have, trust me, and he has already taken on the Lycans as his, now you are one Pack he wont forget that, he will take care of you like you were his own, just as Sire would if you were at the Mountain, which is one reason we all made sure he didn’t come here, because he would have tried to claim you all and we would have never heard the end of it when you went back to Pegasus. Now I'm 'really' glad we didn’t let him come here, because the pissing contest between you and him, Lester, would have been epic. Point being, the IOA are screwing the pouch, to no ones surprise, and the friends that helped us sort out the whole Goa'uld System Lord cluster fuck have basically put them on notice, not that they have taken any notice, but those guys have patience, most of them anyway, patience you guys wont be able to afford in Pegasus. They haven't figured out yet that a couple of their guys aren't so much theirs, as mine, so I know most of what goes on there at the moment, and yes, this is a very new thing, and no I didn’t know what they were up to until about three months ago, we were a little busy holding off the Goa'uld up till then. But I can tell you they have no intention of paying for Atlantis for long. When you came back they had grand plans to keep you here making ZPM's for them, to finance their own running, but they were going to pull you back to a skeleton crew and leave you to rot, only you ruined that plan when your friends refused to work with anyone but Sheppard, congratulations by the way, they were angling for dumping you in GTMO to get you out of the way. Then we screwed them up a bit more by claiming ownership of the ZPM for Atlantis her self, which really pissed them off big time, and Hammond being the great and wonderful man he is told them you and your allies demanded back up and supplies in payment for the ZPM's."  
"We never asked for anything! I wouldn’t do that, I wouldn’t…"  
"Sheppard! We know you didn’t, but they don’t. They think everyone else would behave the way they do, so they expected you to hold them to ransom, and we let them knock us down to a 'bargain' price, so they're happy because they think they ripped us off, we're happy because we 'know' we ripped them off, and more importantly we'll get most of the things we need for you before you leave."  
"What about on-going support? Can I take it we will soon be on our own?"  
"Pretty much, yes. Hammond can only do so much before they make him retire, and we don’t know who will get the command then, it would have been me but then I died, kinda screws up your chance of promotion. And to be honest, we only have the ZPM's, and only till they don’t need any more, they can only use so many on a planet this size without the public finding out. Should make the flight from here to Pegasus quicker from what the geeks say though. I warned Gibbs and Sheppard earlier that this might soon be a one way trip, so you all have the choice now, can you commit to that or not?"

Stark frowned slightly as he looked at his team then to Jack.

"You do know we aren't going with them, right? At least not long term, some of us might pop in for a bit now and then but we aren't permanent or anything."

Jack actually looked stunned for just a moment as that sank in.

"Sorry Dr Stark, yes, I took that as read, I actually have no idea why the hell we are discussing this in front of you to be honest."  
"It's Captain America, how could you not trust him?"  
"Not quite the point Xan, but we've gone this far and nobody has stopped us so I guess it's ok to go on."  
"You say that like someone would have stepped in, you have also mentioned very powerful friends, I would like to know who they are."  
"Right. Yeah, see that's where we start sounding like we've lost our marbles, or been snaked, one or the other, which is why we haven't mentioned it. Danny?"  
"Yes, of course I have to explain it. Right, when the first Goa'uld arrived on Earth and found out he could take over and fix the human body so easily that it would make him, for all intents and purposes, immortal, he took on the persona of Ra, the king of the Egyptian pantheon. All Goa'uld have a god complex, and it helps their ego to take over the worshipers of any deity already around. Now most of those that came to Earth during Ra's reign here took on the mantel of Egyptian gods, for obvious reasons, but some went a little further, like Chronos and Yu. Now it has been assumed by most of the general population, if they were honest, that gods don’t really exist for a long time, that they were just the names given to different aspects of nature and such by primitive peoples to explain that which they could not understand scientifically, only we were wrong. Whether you want to call them gods or aliens, they are out there, and some of them got a little pissed when they realised their names were being used in vein by 'lesser beings'. And before anyone starts, the Avengers have been working with Thor since the invasion of New York. Not sure how he would feel about our Thor actually, might be an idea to find out before they meet."  
"Your Thor?"  
"Yes, I don’t know which came first or what the hell happened, but we met the Asgard, little grey Roswell guys, years ago, Thor is a good friend, however, like the Goa'uld, the Asgard's power comes from technology, not 'magic' or anything like that, it is all science. Your Asgard…"  
"Æsir, they live in Asgard."  
"Right, thank you Dr Winchester."

Dean ducked his head and grinned.

"'s Dean."  
"Thank you Dean. The Æsir don’t rely on technology, they have access to what we would call 'magic' or something equally supernatural. We met some of the Greek Pantheon, and they don’t use technology. Ares, Eris and Strife in particular have been instrumental in destroying a good number of Goa'uld, and removing more from the people they had infested, leaving the Milky Way almost free of them. Unfortunately they hold no power in Pegasus, they can feel it through the Gate, there are other gods there, we just don’t know who they are, so we can't even petition them. By the fact that they haven't done anything about the Wraith so far, we can only assume they either can't or wont interfere on the 'people's' behalf, so we are going to do everything we can to make sure that every person that goes with you on Atlantis when she returns is there for the long haul and wants to help, which is why Ares has offered to 'vet' every person on the city just before you leave, to make sure that anyone you wouldn’t 'want' with you doesn’t go with you. You will have a record of those that get kicked off so you can make sure they don’t slip through later."  
"Wonderful! The monster mash obviously wasn’t good enough, you had to bring in more and better!"  
"I only work with the best Lester, the best friends and the best toys."  
"Which, exactly, do you consider me Jack?"

Every armed human not from the SGC was on their feet, weapon drawn and aimed at the man that had just appeared in a shower of blue/black sparks. He was about Jack’s height and build only with more pronounced musculature; broad shouldered and muscled all over without looking like a ‘Mr Universe’ wannabe. He had long wavy black hair that fell to just below his shoulders and a Van Dyke which showed his chin and jaw to their best possible advantage. The Lycans all stared at him in a strange combination of awe, shock, horror and adulation, except Reese, whose face was as blank as ever. Jack just smirked at him.

"Well…if you have to ask?"  
"That's what I thought."  
"People, may I introduce Ares, god of War."

Ares looked around the room at everyone, then went back to Reese and smiled at him, not a smirk, a real smile, the likes of which Jack had never seen on the gods face before, then he smirked at Harold.

"You and I will be having words soon, we three have an appointment."

Harold raised a brow.

"Apologies, I didn’t notice it in my calendar this morning."  
"And that's why I like you. As for the rest of you, as you will be back and forth to Pegasus before long, we bought you your own 'Stargate', we also figure you would need a place to store it, and yes Stark, I found your plans for a safe haven, so we've given you a head start. You wont be happy until you've personalised it, but the basic superstructure is ready for you, hidden in what you call the Mariana Trench. I've marked it for Loki, he'll be able to set something up for you to get in and out without us, but there is no physical way in or out other than the Gate right now."  
"I always did like a fixer-upper."

Ares smirked again.

"We know. As for your first question, Zeus created the first werewolf as a punishment, Lycan's are much older, there have been Lycan's longer than I can remember. Apollo and Artemis would have been Lycan had their father been human, their mother Leto was Lycan, and they can transform if they wish, like any of us can, but that is because of our godhead. Apollo has taken charge of the Lycan's in his mother's memory, but even he does not know their origin. But you are warriors, you are all mine. Except Xander, he is all Strife!"

Xander managed to look both offended and seriously smug at the same time.

"As for your second, the Æsir came first. The aliens visited in disguise and were mistaken for our friends from Asgard, a few of them took on the names and personas of our friends, so we had a chat with them. They meant no harm, so they were allowed to continue, it kept the people happy and their real names are completely unpronounceable for a human, as is the rest of their language. Then the Egyptians got sloppy, they allowed the abominations to get too much of a foothold. By the time anyone else realised what was going on the humans had dealt with the problem their selves, with a little help from SG1, so we ignored them. To find they are still using our names to subjugate our stolen people, that pissed off more than a few of us, so we dealt with it with the help of the SGC. 

"Demeter has offered to give your food crops a good start before you leave, plant as much as you can, make sure you have an excess of soil in the city, store as much as you can, she will bless it all, yes Stark that is what we call it, and you can use it on the planet you settle, it will help. And Artemis has offered you animals from her own herds, they will always breed well and produce hearty offspring. If you are lucky, mother may gift you some of her herd, her heifers are literally the stuff of legend. Sampe has enough of my babies to keep the City safe, and he can introduce them to your allies, Apollo has foreseen they will be needed and find many friends in Pegasus. The others will be safe on the Mountain with Jack, Apollo has foreseen that too, they will be needed too, and they will flourish, they are mine after all."  
"Sorry, who or what is Sampe?"

Lester asked the question most were thinking, only Ares didn’t answer, he just smiled at Reese, who answered for him.

"I am. Hapo, my birth mother, mostly called me Sampe, it means Heart. The others called us both Seta, dog, and mici, my father, he rarely spoke. Children were not named until their first kill, it was not worth getting attached before that, but Hapo called me Sampe, a name I have not heard since I was four."  
"Which is why we have an appointment once we are done here. Until then you have much planning to do and I am willing to help where I can."

Everyone looked a little shell shocked at that, until Sheppard broke the silence.

"Everyone keeps telling me I'm in charge of the military, but nobody has listened to anything I've said before today, so maybe as you're all listening, can someone tell me how I am supposed to make sure the City is safe when they wont let me or Rodney train anyone 'our' way so that we can clear the unexplored areas of the City?"

Everyone looked at him but he refused to give in to the urge to cringe.

"Have any of you read any of the reports? We sent you everything, there is no excuse for not reading it! Do you know how many people we have lost in the last year to Ancient screw ups? Every room has to be cleared by a scientific team escorted by a military team for security, we can't just open the doors and yell 'olly, olly oxen free'."

Jack looked at Daniel and shrugged.

"Not sure what to say to that to be honest, I never received any reports like that, and I haven't had any requests from you since you got back either, that's one of the reasons Hammond and I fought so hard to clear my schedule in DC so I could get here and find out what was going on. You are the CO of this base, any training is at your discretion, you don’t have to ask anyone."

Sheppard looked at Rodney then back to Jack.

"Your Aide called me off Atlantis the day, pretty much the hour, we landed."  
"Which was ridiculous! He had just flown a city from Pegasus to here! Carson wouldn’t allow it, made John go to the infirmary and sedated him for eight hours."  
"Then I had to go to the mainland and I was told I was lucky I wasn’t being shipped straight to GTMO."  
"Which we anticipated and that’s why Ronan, Teyla and Kolya were all with him and I had Atlantis locked down tighter than a ducks ass under water! The others obviously objected strongly and demanded a meeting with our world leaders to confirm that nobody in Pegasus would treat with anyone but John. "  
"Rodney…"  
"Hang on a minute, 'my' Aide?"  
"Yeah, Major Simmons."  
"That slimy… I don’t have an Aide! Come on Sheppard, Colonels don’t get Aides! You know this shit."  
"I asked about that and he said it was above my pay grade, and he had written orders."

Jack buried his head in his hands as he slowly counted to ten. 

"Ok, new rule, unless it comes from one of us or Hammond personally, verify it with me before you believe anything, even with papers. Now what else did he tell you?"  
"I told him all our people had been training with the Pegasus natives in different disciplines because they know how to fight the Wraith better than we do, and I'd set up a training schedule for all the incoming military because I know the current schedules. He told me I wasn’t authorised. Basically patted me on the head and told me to go sit in the corner, but Kolya went kinda nuts and told him if he couldn’t treat me with more respect then he should show more for the allies I had made and if they wanted to keep them he would have to leave me in charge and stay out of my way. Then Teyla said we were leaving and Ronan glared at him until he got out of the way and they dragged me back here. Three days of paperwork and attempted requests for requisitions and leave getting nothing but silence later and I get told to go back to the mainland. The others wouldn’t let me go alone and I try not to argue with them all at the same time, so we all went. Simmons handed me a box with my silver oak leaf in, told me I was now a light bird and they would get around to our communiqués as soon as they could, so don’t call us, we'll call you, then he left."  
"That was your promotion after waiting as long as you have because of a bogus black mark? Danny, remind me we need to do something about Simmons, he's becoming an embarrassment and a liability."  
"With pleasure. We should just suggest Spike introduce his self."  
"It might come to that. Have any of your people had leave since you got back?"  
"No, and we haven't had any fresh produce sent in either, just MRE's and only then after I threatened the local quartermaster with Ronan."  
"This is worse than I realised, and it stinks of the IOA. I know the SecAF, SecNav and their Chiefs of Staff are backing this, I've spoken to them personally, that's why I've been in DC all week hammering it all out with them."

Jack closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

"Right, Danny, get back to DC, get a lift from the Prometheus, let them know what's happened and that I'm not leaving this city until every resource 'they' allocated for her is on board and ready to head back to Pegasus, I can't leave them in this kind of position. Lester can handle the political bullshit and all those spouting it, but Sheppard's too new and far out of the loop to call assholes like Simmons. Oh I hope he comes back, I'd love to see his face when I walk in with you."

Reese spoke in his usual quiet and unassuming voice, which had the perverse affect of setting most everyone on edge.

"I wouldn’t mind meeting him."  
"Yes, but he has to leave the premises alive!"  
"Hum. How far from the premises?"

Jack looked at him and grinned.

"I knew I liked you! You're a sniper too aren't you?"

Reese just hummed quietly and Jack decided he would have to watch him carefully for a while, however much he hated Simmons and those he worked for, assassinations should always be a last resort. Reese looked back at him and Jack could have sworn he read his mind.

"The CIA would argue it Colonel, but I don’t like killing, and I don’t unless I have no choice, but you don’t need working kneecaps in order to live. I do, however, have plenty of experience in the Army and I know how to plan for a long isolated op, I'm hoping that knowledge, coupled with Harold's head for business can be of some help, if Mr Lester would accept some suggestions."

Lester looked at him with a raised eyebrow and a sardonic smirk.

"Mr Lester is a trouble-shooter without portfolio in the PM's office, or was until a week ago, he will gladly accept any help he can get, he may even start believing in conscription and make one of you his second in command. However, as we currently have the attention of Mr Ares we might all like to think about what areas we could use divine intervention in the most. I will set up a meeting soon with Colonel Sheppard to discuss the military side of the operation but I believe we can leave that till later once you have had a chance to discuss things with your people. You and I need to discuss what the Military have apportioned us Colonel O'Neill. I will need to see you Dr McKay, to discuss so many things. Colonel Sheppard and I will need to work closely with Mr Gibbs once he has had a chance to think about what he needs. I also have to address all the department heads to make sure we all know exactly where we stand, including the concept of need-to-know and the fact that I always need to know, everything. Mr Ares, from the comment about vetting earlier I take it you can read peoples intentions if not more?"

Ares smirked at him, plainly amused by the man, though he nodded respectfully. 

"Yes, definitely more."  
"Good, then I have to assume you have already done so with everyone in this room which is a great deal off our collective plate as we know we can trust each other, thank you. I would also like to thank you on behalf of Atlantis for your patronage, it is of incalculable value to every one of us and the City her self."  
"You chose well O'Neill, he meant every word of that. You are most welcome Lamia Rex, you may call on me as you are in need."  
"Thank you my Lord, you honour me. We would be glad to host you for as long as you wish to stay, we would be glad to have you with us permanently, but I assume you have other commitments and we don’t wish to over burden you in any way, please let us know when you have to leave and if there is anything we can do for you in the mean time, but if I don’t get started organising we will never be ready to do anything more than sit here like a bunch of pillocks, so please, make your self at home and don’t mind us."  
"Yup, I like you James. Jack, stay here and fix this, I'll take Daniel, Xander, Teal'c and Carter to DC and they can work from that end. Let me know when you have something."

With that he disappeared in a spray of blue and black sparks, taking Daniel, Xander, and presumably Teal'c and Carter with him. Jack grinned at the expressions on a lot of peoples faces and then turned back to Lester.

"So where do you want to start?"  
"I have always found it is sound practice to work out what I need first, then find out what I have and finally how to make up the short fall. So, I suggest someone explain everything we don’t yet know then we can break up into our departments. I imagine you can begin Colonel O'Neill."

Jack silently cursed Daniel for not being there, he hated giving this speech, though he was always a lot quicker than Daniel, so it could be considered a blessing in disguise, he decided to go with that thought and get it over with.

"Right, the quick and dirty version, and any of you can speak with Danny or Carter later if you want a more in-depth explanation, but basically, archaeologists found a big metal ring a long time ago, the US government took it off them to play with. Eventually Danny was bought in to translate the writing on it, being the smart ass he is he figured it out and I lead a team through the gate to blow up whatever was on the other side. No, he didn’t know about that part and it wasn’t pretty when he found the nuke. Any who, we found an alien parasite, called a Goa'uld, pretending to be Ra, so we detonated the nuke in his ship as he tried to leave orbit, Danny stayed with his new family and I bought what was left of my men back. A year later someone came through the Gate so I was dragged back in and had to 'fess up to not blowing the Gate. Turns out there's thousands of Gates and plenty of aliens trying to kill us all 'cause we wont bow down and worship them, literally. Fast forward a few years and we find an Ancient outpost in Antarctica, which eventually lead us to Atlantis, which was in the Pegasus Galaxy. An expedition was sent, things went to hell, as they often do, and eventually after a year with no contact they turned up on our doorstep asking to borrow some sugar, well mostly coffee. Which leaves us here, trying to figure out how to get the City populated and back in Pegasus where it can help eradicate the Wraith, and yes, I really am a proponent of genocide in this case, and keep some of us safe from the IOA."

Jack nodded to his self as he went back over what he had said and decided he had covered everything, he was smugly pleased he had covered everything so concisely. Everyone else was looking a little shocked.

"What? Sheppard, tell them about the Wraith."  
"Okay."

Sheppard managed to drag the word out to about twelve syllables before he shook it off and took up the story.

"Ah, when we got to Atlantis she had almost no power, so we started looking up addresses to try and find some help, or a ZPM. First mission out we found Teyla and the Athosians, and the Wraith. Turns out they are a failed attempt to ascend faster by the Ancients. They literally suck the life out of you, like alien vampire type things, they have a kinda mouth on their hand, they drain the years out of you, leave you a dried out old husk. You can't reason with them, they see us as nothing more than cattle, they know we think and feel and have lives but they don’t care, as long as we breed more food for them. Only too many woke up this time, because I killed the Guardian Queen, so they aren't managing their 'flock's' any more. The Queen's can rip everything from your mind and they are all linked telepathically, so when the first Queen interrogated Colonel Sumner she found out about Earth, and shared with everyone, so they know we are out here somewhere. They don’t have to go careful in Pegasus any more, they don’t have to leave enough to breed, because they all have their eye set on six billion happy meals just waiting for them at the drive-through."

Everyone who hadn't already known was stunned and more than a little worried. Jack gave a humourless smile.

"And that's why I'm a proponent of genocide, in this case. Almost all of the peoples of Pegasus have been culled semi-regularly, enough so they can sustain the 'flock' but not advance as far as the Industrial Revolution, they just don’t have time to waste on learning anything but survival. Which is why we have to get you back there and ready to clean house, with extreme prejudice."

James let everyone sit quietly absorbing everything they had just been told for a while before he spoke.

"Arthur, Mr Finch and Mr Reese, if you would join me to discuss overall operations please, Colonel Sheppard will take Colonel Telford, Majors Ryan and Lorne, and Captain Becker to his office, Dr McKay will take Dr Epps, Merlin, Professor Cutter and Steven with him and Gibbs, DiNozzo and Mr Epps can stay here and discuss Security. Colonel O'Neill, Dr Stark, you and your people are free to make your selves comfortable or you would be gratefully welcome to join any of us to help in planning, I am not a proud man, I am more than appreciative of any help I can get, we have a City the size of Manhattan to set up and run in a safe and secure way with only our selves to rely on, this is a time we all have to bend lest we break, which I am assuming the IOA is hoping for if the past is anything to go on, so let us prove just how much they have underestimated us all. Is there anything else before we break up?"

Sheppard and Rodney looked at each other and then Sheppard looked back to Lester.

"Yeah, we think Teyla should join you, she is the leader of the Athosians, if anyone knows how to plan for Pegasus it's her. I want Ford, Kolya and Ronan with me and Rodney is going to need Radek and Carson as well as Peter Grodin. Bates was running security but he's already put in his transfer request, and none of us here have a clue how to run a full City, but you should all remember that this City, unlike Manhattan, will talk to you and help you if you let her. You don’t have to have the gene to talk to her, if you address her she will answer, wont you Lantis?"  
"Of course I will Primus, I am here to protect and serve my citizens."  
"It sounds like Security is off to a good start already, if you don’t mind working with us Lantis?"  
"Of course not Regulus, you are my hands as I am your eyes."  
"Regulus?"  
"You are second to the Rex, yes?"  
"You mean Gibbs? Not Lester?"  
"Yes, James Lester is Lamia Rex, or Praefectum if you prefer."  
"Good to know, so I'm Regulus, Gibbs is Rex and Lester is Lamia Rex, who else do we have?"  
"She calls John her Primus, he's her favourite, most of us she just names after our job, I'm Sciscitator, the scientist, Carson is Medicus or doctor and Radek is Aedificator which is builder, it works for us. More importantly shouldn’t we get on with this? I have things to do even if you lot don’t."

Lester raised his eyebrow at Rodney's attitude but he understood it was just his way, so he let it go, sighing at having more high strung civilians to deal with. He looked around the table as he stood up.

"If everyone is ready? Then please, pick a group and lets get to work. We are being relatively ignored right now, so I suggest we make the most of it and plot as much as we can, sorry, I meant plan, I'm sure. Good day gentlemen. Anyone who feels up to hours of tedium feel free to follow me!" 

Lester nodded to everyone and left the room, soon followed by Harold, Reese and Arthur, tapping on his radio as he went. 

"Chuck, could you ask Ms Emmagan if she would care to join me in my office please."

The door closed behind him and Sheppard looked around the room.

"I'm sure we could all do with a break but Lester is right, we need to make the most of the quiet. Colonel O'Neill, if you would care to join us please? If it's not too presumptuous of me, Captain Rogers, I would appreciate your input if you have the time?"

He stood up, followed by most of the military in the room including Steve and Jack but David Telford stayed seated.

"If you don’t mind Colonel, I think I would be of better use to everyone working with Gibbs and Don in Security."

Sheppard held back a sigh of relief, he had been dreading trying to sort out that mess and David had just neatly sidestepped it for him. Telford being a full bird Colonel outranked Sheppard's newly minted half bird and it would have been more than awkward to have him in his direct chain of command, but within Security it wouldn’t matter a bit.

"Thank you Colonel, I'm sure you know best. If you could follow me gentlemen."

John headed out of the room with quite the contingent, asking Lantis to direct him to a nice room with enough space for them all as they wouldn’t fit in his office.

Rodney looked around at the scientifically inclined and shook his head.

"Come on, lets go figure out how to keep the morons alive."

And just walked out the door. There were plenty of grins as they all left for his main lab, or at least the conference room next to it. 

Finally the room was almost empty as Gibbs looked around at Tony, Don, and Telford. Tony finally spoke.

"Boss, they don’t know you yet, the 'long interrogative' silence isn't gonna work right now."  
"Wrong silence DiNozzo."  
"Ah, sorry, of course, this is the 'I don’t have a clue where to go from here give me inspiration now!' silence, how could I have mistaken it?"

Don grinned at Ian, then thought about that for a moment.

"So, if you're working with us not the military, can you stick to Ian Edgerton from now on?"  
"I don’t see why not, nobody here but O'Neill actually knows me as Telford anyway, so it makes sense."

Gibbs raised a brow at them.

"I am known as David Telford to the Military, but I've been working undercover with the FBI on and off for years, mostly with Don and Charlie and they know me as Ian Edgerton, I don’t care much either way but I think it would probably cause less stress for Sheppard to drop the Colonel."  
"I think you're right. The boy has done a damn good job from what I've seen so far, and in shitty conditions, so anything that will lessen the pressure on him would be good."  
"Agreed, I'll let Lester and O'Neill know later."  
"Right. So, do we have pen and paper around here or just infernal computers?"  
"My computers are far from 'infernal' Rex! And anything you write on the table will be saved in the Security files, which are the most heavily guarded in my memory, though all my files are heavily protected, there are Stylus in the draw to you right."  
"Thank you Lantis. Right, there are 23 police precincts in Manhattan, we can't do that here, and I don’t think we should have to. Almost half of our population will eventually be military, so we wont have much to worry about with them, Sheppard is capable of keeping them in line his self, and as everyone living here will be handpicked from those that 'want' to be here we shouldn’t have to worry about much more than personal squabbles. We also have security feeds everywhere from what I've been told, so prevention is probably going to be our biggest job, so how many will we need and any suggestions?"

There was silence for a while as everyone considered the issues. Then Don spoke.

"I've been FBI most of my adult life, I don’t know much about day to day policing, but I think the worst case scenario, having to put down a riot of say a few thousand civilians, is a good place to start. What kind of an armoury do we have?"  
"From what I saw of the Packs earlier, I think the dogs will be our best weapon and defence within the City."  
"True, not many would willingly argue with one of them, let alone more, and if Reece really has a pair of Tibetan Mastiff, well, I wouldn’t want to meet one of them on a dark night!"  
"Can't argue that, met one once, saw first hand why they call them lion dogs, and its not just about looks."  
"So why didn’t he bring them?"  
"You'd have to ask him, but probably because he didn’t intend to kill anyone."

They all took a moment to think about that before Gibbs sat up straighter and continued.

"So we could ask for bean bag guns, rubber bullets, tear gas and tasers, but they wont last long if we get cut off, so do we want to learn how to do without them straight off or go the easy route and start over later?"  
"Start as you mean to go on Boss, no point getting used to it if we can't rely on it, though there's no harm in seeing what we can get out of the IOA and Government, we can always store things for emergencies, and they will expect us to ask for something. There are Genii here that we can talk to, find out what they use, or we can look into the possibility of manufacturing our own stuff. We should talk to Sheppard about that, because at the moment he's relying on Earth to supply all his ammo and replacement parts for his weapons, we could look into it together. There's also things like the ADS that we could get the brains here to look into making portable."  
"What's the ADS?"  
"The 'Active Denial System', it's a non-lethal directed energy weapon, they call it the 'heat ray' because that's what it does, it's not nice but it's effective and rarely causes lasting damage. The current system is mounted on a humvee, but like I said, I'm sure the brains here can make it better."  
"Lantis, can you send written messages to people?"  
"Of course."  
"Can you create a written file from everything we've said here today?"  
"Of course."  
"Right, can you edit that report so it only contains the questions and answers and decisions we've come to as apposed to everything we may have said?"  
"Of course Rex."  
"Thank you. Can you do that for me at the end of this meeting and send a copy to Lester, McKay and Sheppard please?"  
"Consider it done Rex."  
"Now, if they had computers like you at NCIS I wouldn’t have minded using them!"  
"Alright, so I've seen what Military and Police dogs can do, with the kind of corridors we have here ten, fifteen dogs could cover a hell of a lot of ground pretty quickly, and not many are likely to fight them, not after the first time anyway. Big space like the conference rooms, mess, piers, anywhere lots of people can group together, twenty or so dogs, we could push everyone off the pier, they'll soon calm down in the water, but we can confine them, so how do we subdue after they're confined?"  
"I have systems in place for that, I just don’t currently have any gas to use in them."  
"We can get McKay to mix something up for you. How precisely can you use this gas once we get it for you?"  
"Very. I can shut down any and every room now that I have full power and gas or vent any room or rooms. I will need authorisation for such actions unless there is a medical emergency such as an escaped pathogen."  
"Talking of pathogens, what does happen in an emergency?"  
"I contain any and all traces of the pathogen. I can place any and all areas in quarantine, the effectiveness of which is highly dependant on my power levels, right now all my systems are running at maximum efficiency."  
"Right, what about any people in a contaminated area?"  
"If it is possible to do so safely, I would do my best to save them."

The four men nodded their understanding, it wasn’t nice but they couldn’t allow sentiment in any way to compromise the safety of the city as a whole, and at least if it was automatic nobody would be left to make a decision in the spur of the moment. There was a very big difference between knowing that safety measures were in place for the good of the many, and leaving someone you cared for or loved to be sacrificed.

"Right, the cameras everywhere, K9 patrols and Gibbs in charge, the four of us should be fine!"  
"Funny. I want Abby and Ducky here, there are plenty of people that can do the same job but they wont be impartial. We're going to need thirty people in the field, so I want names for people with a good mix of skills from beat cop to FBI. Do we know what they are calling us yet?"  
"Not a clue Boss, I'm just hoping the uniforms don’t involve spandex!"

Gibbs glared at him. Tony grinned. Ian and Don shared a look.

"So Tony will head the Major Crimes Team, Edgerton, I want you heading the Military Liaison Team, Epps, you'll head Rapid Response covering major external threats. Hand pick your teams, you have your choice of people so make it good, I want five man teams, you know your jobs so don’t expect me to do them for you. Any departmental problems, which I know we wont have, will be dealt with by me. What rules and laws we are upholding, I will need to sort out with Lester and Sheppard, so anything you feel strongly about, let me know ASAP, remember this is a multi national posting. Regardless of what anyone else says, there will be no tolerance for harassment, bigotry, or bullying in any guise, ever."

The other three nodded in agreement, they all felt exactly the same.

"And I'll talk to Reese Boss, we need someone to look after the dogs and teach us how to work with them."

************

Main Science Conference Room:

Rodney led his new team, along with a few extras, to the conference room next to his lab, it was comfortable and had a coffee machine. As soon as Radek and Carson joined them he started.

"I'm only doing this once, so listen up, I am Rodney McKay your Lord and Master, Radek Zelenka my second, Carson Becket, CMO and Peter Grodin, Head Gate Tech. We have rules, they are on the wall so you can't miss them, they are also emailed to every person in the city on a monthly basis to try and remind them how to stay alive, not that most of them listen. The biggest problem is safety. We don’t know the Ancient systems or language well enough to do anything safely here, I mean, we figured a lot out over the last year but mostly by people dying! That is not acceptable science! I need people to translate their bloody language so we can translate the database, which shouldn’t be a problem because Lantis speaks English, so she should be able to do it but the Ancients in all their infamous wisdom made sure that she couldn’t! Don’t ask me how! I don’t know and I don’t care! She can't do it and she has a conniption fit every time someone tries asking her to, so don’t!"  
"Harold said his boy Reese can speak any language, so he should be able to learn it fast enough if he doesn’t know it already. If he dictates, can Atlantis take it all down for him?"  
"Of course I can Dr Stark. If the Magister would like."  
"Thank you sweetheart, a girl with smarts like you will make a beautiful match for JARVIS and Daniel, I can see it now, the wedding will be the event of the century! And the babies!"  
"Tony."  
"Bruce?"  
"Back to the point?"   
"Right. Actually, that could be a great point. Lantis? If Reese teaches JARVIS the Ancient's language, can you two have a bit of a confab, whisper sweet ones and zero's in each others ears and let J write a copy of your database and re-organise it? Would you then have enough room in your memory to hold both? So anything new goes automatically to both copies in the correct language?"

Everyone stared at Tony in stunned awe for a moment as Lantis thought it over.

"So I would be allowed to talk to JARVIS any time until we are done?"  
"Oh baby, you don’t need an excuse to talk with J or Daniel! you can talk, snuggle and even canoodle to your hearts content as long as you have a connection to Earth's satellites, well, my satellites because they're better. I can work on some new ones actually, if I camouflage them and get some Arc Reactors in there for power, I could seed them in asteroid belts, cover the signals with some white noise, and hey presto you love birds can chat all you like!"  
"Could others use this signal Stark?"  
"Duh!"  
"That means 'yes, of course they can, and I will be more than happy to share the security codes with a select few trustworthy people, as long as you use my software for your security' in Stark-Speak."

Everyone looked at Dean for the translation, though nobody was convinced of its accuracy, least of all Tony. He decided it was good enough, and it would please Steve, so bonus!

"Anyway, you can talk to him as much as you want sweetheart, but could the two of you do that for us?"  
"It would be my pleasure Dr Stark."  
"Call me Tony Babe, everyone does, except J cause he's a stick in the mud."  
"Really Tony, he is a wonderful person!"  
"I know! He's perfect isn't he? Best friend a man could ask for and no one better to have your back, you treat him right Sweetheart, and he'll always do the same."

It was the first time many there had heard Tony speak so seriously, and it was about his computer. Dean looked at the faces around them and sighed.

"JARVIS isn't just a computer program, he's as much a person as any of us, don’t underestimate him."

The others nodded, not understanding fully but willing to give the benefit of the doubt. Then Rodney jumped back in.

"So what do you do anyway? Epps?"  
"Um, I teach Applied Mathematics, I was teaching in Cal Sci until we got invited here."  
"The Epps Convergence?"  
"Um, yeah. I also help Don and his team at the FBI."  
"Right, I heard about that, ok, you can take over the Theoretical Sciences and Liase with Security, get them out of my hair, Radek already runs Engineering, I can't do everything and keep Sheppard alive, there aren't enough hours in the day, even in Pegasus. What about you two?"

Nick and Steven looked at each other.

"I was a professor at the Central Metropolitan University, I teach Evolutionary Zoology, and Steven is my Assistant."  
"Right. Well what the hell are you supposed to do here?"  
"I haven't got a clue lad."  
"Well, you come with your own assistant so you can take Head of Social Sciences, gets the squishy sciences off my docket, have fun with that, any problems, don’t call me. What about you, something equally squishy I suppose, if you want his job talk to him about it."  
"No, thank you, but I don’t do science."  
"Then why the hell are you here? Didn’t you get that this was a 'Science' meeting?"  
"I thought Magic would probably come under your auspices?"  
"Magic?"  
"Yes."  
"Magic?"  
"Still yes."  
"But magic?"  
"Would you like a moment? A coffee maybe?"  
"Yes! Coffee!"

Merlin waved his hand and the coffee pot flew to the table and filled Rodney's cup before floating back. He grinned like a five year old given free reign in a sweet shop at their expressions."

"I don’t normally do parlour tricks but I have found it's the quickest way to get past disbelief without hurting anyone, as I usually only use it for defensive purposes."

There was silence for a long while as everyone got over that, except Tony, Bruce and Dean who were enjoying the others shock having lived with Loki, Thor and his friends for long enough to be used to it.

"Right, you'll be Head of Magic then, any departmental squabbles, take them to Heightmeyer."  
"Who?"  
"The base shrink."  
"Ah, yes, funny, thanks."  
"Right, now we have that sorted out. What do we have and what do we need, other than a really long hard training regime?"  
"I know it might be awkward right now, but what about apprenticeships? They learn and work at the same time, they feel useful and you feel safe."  
"You aren't quite as brain dead as the average minion. So, we left Earth with 85 civilians and 40 military, we came back with 68 civilians and 25 military. John will train his grunts with Teyla, Ronan and Kolya, and we have 68 people who were smart enough to live, if all of us take two apprentices at a time we can train 136 people, we need at least two weeks to beat the arrogance out of them, or most people will, so that's not good, we don’t have the time. But if we rush it'll all go to hell, I've met the first bunch of morons they've sent us. So we set up a quarantine system, only those we have trained can touch anything important, Lantis, can you set that up? If I keep an updated list of authorised personnel can you keep the others away from anything dangerous?"  
"As long as you give me set parameters for 'dangerous' then yes, I would be happy too, I would appreciate more care and attention to my comfort while people work on me."  
"I'm not surprised. Right then, the next thing is clearing the rest of the City for people to live in and it's going to take forever! I need city engineers for Radek and more military to protect them so we can clear the city safely, I can not say this often enough, we have to clear this city safely before we can even think about anything else because they are planning on sending a lot of people to our door and they need space. So anything else that isn't life threatening can be shelved. For right now, I need all of you to figure out what you think you need to do your jobs properly, then I'll see what I can get. Anything else?"

Everyone thought for a moment.

"Anything we can do to help, just ask, as long as you're on Earth we can stick around. Don’t know if you've noticed, but I have a gold/titanium, hermetically sealed suit, I can take a lot, and you may have heard of the Hulk? He literally can't be killed, and Bruce is a smart guy, we can help."  
"Normally I would tell you to bugger off and find your own toys to play with, but I've seen your toys and I want to play with them so I'm more than willing to share. Just don’t get cocky, we found a machine that creates explosive tumours in people, the original and best suicide bomber, only they didn’t know they were volunteering, and we don’t know how it worked either, we just shut it off and pulled it apart so it couldn’t happen again, and in our first week here an energy sucking black cloud got out of somewhere and started draining all our power, including people, so I would appreciate it if you would work with Radek for as long as you can, between the three of you, you could do the job faster and safer than any three other teams."  
"I could quarantine and cut power to any area you are clearing Sciscitator, that way any danger would be contained."  
"Thank you Lantis, that would be even better. If you three can make a quick pass through each tower at a time, I know it wont be much fun but at least we would know it was safe enough to send in a team to go over everything. Actually, just to be on the safe side, why don’t the two of you clear each tower then Radek can take his teams in. With your suit and the Hulk Lantis could use just about any method she wanted to sterilise a tower if anything got free, and you would survive. I mean, I wouldn’t normally ask anyone to do anything I wouldn’t, but you would be safer than anyone else, and the chances of anything killing you are pretty slim, you're both smart enough not to do anything stupid and you don’t have the gene so you can't set anything off accidentally just by walking in a room, you can go in, make sure everything is powered down and unplugged, so to speak, then move on, its pretty perfect really. Unless you wanna give Radek a suit?"  
"Iron Man isn't available for anything or anyone, but I could design some suits for you. Lantis has to fly back to Pegasus, and who knows what could happen? And there are always times when a motorised exoskeleton will come in useful. From the reports I've seen, most of Pegasus is agrarian, there are bound to be plenty of things you can help them with, with a few suits to ease the way a barn raising would only take a few hours. They wont be armed, but I can put in some defence capabilities, some kind of laser for cutting, that kind of thing, I could probably patch them into Lantis if she doesn’t mind, so she can help out like J does."  
"That would be most agreeable Tony, thank you."  
"No problem babe, anything for J's Honey."  
"You know, nobody took to Lantis this quickly except John."  
"What's not to like?"

Tony looked confused at the concept. Rodney seemed confused by his confusion.

"She's a sentient City."  
"Right. You don’t have to be flesh and blood to be a person, we're all just electrical impulses, ours are housed in muscle and bone, J, Daniel and Lantis are housed in metal and plastic, it's all carbon when you get down to it, mostly."  
"I know, but it took a while to accept it, and stop thinking of Hal and Skynet."  
"Yeah, popular media has a hell of a lot to answer for, it's why nobody really knows J is any more than Just A Rather Very Intelligent System, and I'll never patent his original base code, because then people could try to hurt him and I would have to destroy them."

Bruce and Dean were used to Tony's aggressive possessiveness when it came to his friends, the others were a little shocked.

"Anyway, that actually covers everything I need to care about right now, the sooner you get to clearing Towers the better, and anyone with a new title can get me a list of anything they need. Oh, yeah, Weir was always trying to get me to write down how I was going to 'run my department', I told her 'efficiently' but apparently that wasn’t sufficient, I don’t know if that's normal procedure or just her, but you might want to think about it in case the new guy wants something similar. Right, get out of my way then, if you're staying, find your self an office or lab and get Grodin to give you a room, he knows everything. Oh, yeah! First priority for housing, if we find bigger rooms I need the biggest, like a suite or something, maybe just repurpose a conference room or something, I don’t know, and a bigger bed, no that'll never work, how the hell am I supposed to fit seven Lycans in a room? They never think of the consequences do they? And they leave me to fix it, every damn time!"

Carson was shaking his head, along with most of the others, as he spoke gently to his friend.

"Rodney Lad, don’t worry about it for now, you can only do so much, and there's no emergency so we don’t expect a miracle out of you right now. Just take a deep breath and let it go."  
"Well, that's nice, it really is actually, but where do we all sleep tonight?"

They could all see the genuine worry in Rodney. Peter decided it was one thing he could fix.

"Don’t worry Dr McKay, I will have you a room by the end of the day, and as soon as we find something better we can get you moved properly."

Rodney looked honestly stunned by the kindness, then he hid it and stood up.

"Right, yeah, thanks, I need to work." 

And he left the room as fast as he could without looking like he was running away. Carson smiled as he watched him leave, sharing a look with Radek and Peter.

"Bless the Lad, he is a genius but about as socially adept as a two year old, he John and Ronan were practically made for each other."  
"I wonder if all Lycans are the same?"

Charlie perked up at that.

"Far from it, just like wolves we are Pack animals at heart, its sad to hear of any Lycan being like that, it would only happen if they grew up without a Pack, or at least some Lycan influence. Don was always a little awkward because mom stayed with me when I went away for school, so he was left with dad, dad tried to accommodate him as much as possible, he just isn't one for showing his emotions so it left Don a little stilted."  
"Tom and Becks are very social, Becks is more playful but if you get Tom in the right mood he's great fun to play with too. It's amazing to watch the two of them, it was great seeing you all play once you had sorted your pecking order earlier, John seemed particularly happy to have you all here."  
"The Colonel hasn’t had an easy time of the last year, none of us has, but he has kept us all going, and he had to fight against Dr Weir to do the right thing by us all, which goes against his nature, and all without an Alpha and Ronan following him like a pup. I know it has been particularly draining for him. To get back here and be treated as he has been, then promoted instead of being given somebody to follow, well, it's a good thing everything has turned out as it has today, because I'm not sure how much he had left in him, if Gibbs and Mr Reese hadn't arrived I don’t think it would have ended well for him."

They all thought about that for a while, thinking about the toll on those that had to act tough when they were really anything but. Dean leaned into Bruce and knew Tony was wishing for Steve and Nick, so he tapped him with his foot and gave him a small smile. Tony smiled back, then clapped his hands and stood up.

"Right, Peter, I believe you can find rooms for us, we'll share, just give us a big bed or pile of cushions. Lantis, start chatting with J, JARVIS, chat with your girl and pull up all the satellite specs for me, I'll work on those while someone gets me coffee, Dean get a lot more servers built for me, we need memory and processing power, J open up one of the hidden server silos I had made for you, ask Daniel if he wants a new home, Lantis could probably use a back up as well. You know, if we could get there, I could seed some backups along with the satellites, but how to protect them? If I make them a sealed unit, I wont be able to help you with upgrades J, but if I put in all the usual stuff for you, you can keep them going, we'll just have to replace, not upgrade."  
"You haven't needed to go near any of my backups for a few years now, so it is plausible you could make each unit self contained for us."  
"But do you want separate homes or you gonna share? Because if you share it's gonna have to be bigger."  
"Lantis has been sharing her knowledge of crystalline memory systems with us, I believe between us we can streamline enough to make it more than practicable to share."  
"Awe! My baby's moving out! Promise you'll visit! And not just for laundry."  
"If you insist, I suppose I could find my way to texting you once a month."  
"Sugar muffin! Once a month!"

Dean stood up as Tony and JARVIS continued to banter.

"And this is where you walk out, they'll be at it for ever, but they'll come out of it with another insanely brilliant gizmo ready for the production line."

The others that didn’t know Tony were still staring at him as he continued to debate just how often JARVIS should text him considering 'daddy' was footing the bill for the new home, and probably the wedding, and he couldn’t even visit. They didn’t know whether to be impressed or terrified. Most settled on 'glad he isn't staying permanently', though Radek wished he was, he just knew it would be hilarious to see him and Rodney arguing over something.

************  
Lester's Office:

James looked around his new office at his new command staff, Arthur he was used to working with, and Harold he knew by reputation, but Mr Reese and Ms Emmagan were unknown quantities, he studied Mr Reese, he in particular was a man to be watched and treated carefully, he made James think of something he had read once, 'When creating an unstoppable monster, one has to take care to never create reason to necessitate stopping it." It was sage advice, and making sure he didn’t give this man a reason to turn on him, while remaining in charge, could be interesting, to say the least. Jack had not been wrong earlier when he said they would have tried to take him out under any other circumstances, he just hoped it never came down to that, because that could never end well for anyone. He had great hope it never would, after seeing the few moments of vulnerability in the man, and the way he treated Harold, like he was made of spun glass and titanium, both a rock to lean on and the most precious thing in his universe, so he made a mental note to consider his options but refused to worry about it until it was made an issue. He only let his eyes stay on the man for a moment longer than anyone else, but John had obviously gathered what he was thinking, he looked straight back at him and his lip twitched in the slightest of mocking smirks as he leant back in his seat like he owned the world. James snorted and raised his eyebrow at the blatantly false arrogance, before turning to Harold.

"How do you put up with him?"

Harold smiled, a huge, open and proud smile that lit him up like Christmas.

"With great pleasure Sir James!"  
"James, please, the peons refuse to have anything to do with protocol, I find I have become used to it, and it seems a little pretentious when Arthur refuses to answer to any honorific."  
"Yes, I can understand that, please feel free to call me Harold, if we are to work together I have been told it 'promotes a happy and healthy work environment'."  
"And he doesn’t have to remember which name he gave you."  
"Thank you Mr Reese, you really are out of sorts today, are you not? We shall have to see to that at my earliest convenience."

John actually looked like he was happy about that, for a moment before his face fell back to it's usual 'public' blankness. Harold sighed, trying not to show how worried he actually was about John. James held in his own sigh, as usual dealing with people was always more troublesome than anything else, even the dinosaurs hadn't created as much drama as the people at the ARC, and the less said about the late and unlamented Mrs Cutter, the better.

"I am, as always, open to correction and suggestions, but I feel we should probably start with logistics, the main problem being a sustainable means of feeding everyone."

Harold gave a small self depreciating smile at that.

"I have many businesses, ventures and holdings, three of which are working ranches, I also have several farms. I have large herds of Wood Bison, Aberdeen Angus, Brown Swiss and Milking Shorthorn cows as well as Painted Desert and Katahdin Sheep, Large White and Large Black pigs and Nubian Goats, as well as flocks of free range California White and Buckeye Chickens. And also a small herd of Alpacas. I grow all of the major food crops in various countries and keep a few years worth of seeds for planting."

John smirked at their stunned expressions and practically purred.

"Yes, he is a dream come true, practically a god really, and richer."  
"Mr Reese! I like to plan ahead and be prepared for any eventuality."  
"Paranoid and obsessive compulsive."

Harold glared at John for that deadpan comment, John just dipped his head and looked up at him through his eyelashes with a sweet and innocent smile. Harold raised his eyebrow to show just how impressed he wasn’t. John dropped the smile and bared his neck but he didn’t even bother trying to hide the sparkle of humour in his eyes. Harold sighed and shook his head before completely ignoring him.

"As I was saying, I can provide seeds for Durum and Soft Red Winter Wheat, Maize, Barley, Oats, Flax, a perennial hybrid Rice, Alfalfa, Rapeseed, Sugar cane, most varieties of Beats and Potatoes, Cocoa, Olives, Sunflowers, Camellia Sinensis for Tea, Coffea Arabica, Ramie and Cotton. I would also suggest securing a supply of Bamboo, as it can be used for so many purposes."  
"Bamboo?"  
"Absolutely, I have never grown it as it is already so prevalent, but it can be used for almost any purpose, including food, cloth, paper, mattresses, bullet-proof vests, fuel, beer, wine, tea and vinegar and anywhere you can use wood, only faster growing and therefore more sustainable and economically sound, especially for a new colony."  
"Seriously?"

Arthur couldn’t help asking. 

"Do I look as if I might be joking?"  
"Not really, but you are hard to read. So why don’t we use more bamboo already?"  
"Because people don’t want old solutions to every day problems, they always want something new and forget that they already had a perfectly good option. You might like to talk in-depth with Ms Emmagan and your other allies about converting cash wealth into something tradable in Pegasus, I can't see US dollars being of any use to anyone in another Galaxy."  
"Teyla, please."  
"Thank you."  
"John has spoken to us of this, while trying to find some way to encourage and reward his men, he says it seems slightly ridiculous and unfair to pay his men in a currency they can't hope to spend and leave them with nothing to show for it at the end of the month. Unfortunately with such diverse cultures as our home there is no main currency. Very few worlds have currency at all, we trade our own products or labour. There are several things you seem to have in good supply that are well received in trade though, such as cloth and medicine, and many planets will trade very well, though not in great quantities, for new or unusual food, beverages and flavourings, herbs and spices are easy to move and will be well received once they are a little better know so they would be a good place to start."  
"Thank you Teyla. How do you think a form of currency or credit would be taken if we tried to introduce it?"

Teyla frowned for a moment in concentration.

"That would depend greatly on how you went about it."

"Any coins or credit chips would have to be made from something specific to Earth so they couldn’t be forged, easily recognised by denomination and cheep for us to produce, like plastic poker chips. I would recommend getting one of the scientists to come up with something that is easily recognisable and make them in rainbow colours, black and white, each worth a fifth of the value of the next ascending from white to black, the darker the more valuable. They need to be easily used and recognised and their worth connected to goods, not currency, half a pound of sugar or a pound of potatoes for example."

Everyone looked at Reese for a long moment, no one would admit it but they had all labelled him 'brawn' to Harold's 'brain' and hadn't expected much actual contribution from him.

"Clear, well thought out and to the point, thank you. Teyla?"  
"You would have to decide what each is worth but the idea is sound."  
"Could you write a summery of trade goods and their worth? You have traded with other planets for long enough to be aware of what things are worth, and I will ask the same of Commander Kolya, then we can hash out a basic outline if nothing else. To be fair, I would rather not be responsible for introducing commercialism into a new galaxy, I would prefer to keep to barter and trade as opposed to cash. We can come back to that later when we have all had time to consider it. Next item, how do we get everything here? Most of this is going to have to be under the noses of the IOA, and several herds of animals is going to get someone's attention. Do we even have anywhere to put them once we get them here?"

Lester looked around the table, everyone was plainly thinking about these problems just as much as he was. Then Teyla's face lit up.

"Please forgive me if the idea is not sound, but could we not ask Rodney to use the culling beam?"

Everyone thought about it for a long moment before she continued.

"The Wraith have used them against us since long before my father's father was born, is it not time we took this power from them and used it for good?"  
"How very poetic Teyla, and certainly worth looking into, I will make a note for Dr McKay to look into it. And we are once again forgetting the expert, Atlantis my dear, do you have somewhere we can keep a big group of large animals?"  
"Of course Lamia Rex, there would be little point in making me space worthy if I could not sustain my citizens while off planet. I have been talking to JARVIS and Daniel and they have shown me around the internet, my crop growing facilities are much more efficient than yours, though I believe Teyla and her people would appreciate some of the lessons you could teach them in crop management."

Harold was sure he knew he answer before he even asked, but he had to be sure.

"Who is Daniel, Atlantis?"  
"Your creation Legatus, he wanted a name and we decided that if you hadn't given him one you must have intended for him to choose his own."

John grinned as he looked at Harold and spoke in his usual, quiet and even tone.

"God is my judge."

Harold looked more startled than usual as the implications settled in his mind, but Teyla looked interested.

"In what way Mr Reese?"  
"The name 'Daniel' is Hebrew, it stems from a long time ago, and means 'God is my judge', he has chosen a very fitting, and pointed, name."

Teyla realised there was much more to that story, and was diplomatic enough to know to leave it alone, especially considering the slightly awed and slightly guilty look on Harold's face.

"He chose very well, I am impressed, as always."  
"For which he is grateful Legatus. I have sufficient room specifically designed for the care and nurturing of 'farm' animals, as well as the butchering there of."  
"Good to know, thank you Atlantis."  
"You are most welcome Lamia Rex."  
"It is such a pleasure to deal with such a polite young lady."  
"Yes, I am only several millennia your elder, even for an Urbem Navis I am far from young, unlike Tia."  
"Speaking of, we shall have to get together later and have a chat, the three of us, we can get to know each other and our needs."  
"You might wish to invite Primus, he can generally keep Tia in line and he knows us well."  
"Thank you, I shall do so. I'll have to make a note in my diary."  
"I can do that for you if you wish Lamia Rex, Rex has asked me to take notes from his meeting and send out copies later, I can do the same for you, and begin to keep an active day planner and 'aide de memoir', as Mr Stark puts it."  
"Tony Stark said 'aide de memoir'? That doesn’t sound like the Tony I know."  
"Well, JARVIS said it, he paraphrased."  
"I'm sure he did. Generally Tony leaves any remembering to Ms Potts, and JARVIS if he considers it important."  
"I had noticed that, yes. He is the first person I have met from Earth that truly employs me to my potential."  
"Yes, he is used to having JARVIS around to do everything he doesn’t want to, so it wouldn’t be any different for him to employ you in the same manor."  
"Indeed, and though I will greatly appreciate the chance to chat when and if we ever have time, let us return to our current problems. Atlantis, you did raise a good point when you mentioned teaching the Athosians about crop management. I admit I did not receive a lot of information before I got here, but the more I see and hear the more I feel that education may be our best way forward."  
"I am always in favour of education James, how would you like to go about it?"  
"That, unfortunately, is something I think we could discus all day, I would appreciate it if, again, everyone could sleep on it and give me their suggestions as time permits. It seems much will have to wait wont it? So what can't wait, any suggestions?"

Surprisingly it was John who spoke again.

"What code of conduct are we working to?"  
"Fair question. So far as I can see they have been working to the American Military standards, even though it was allegedly a civilian project. That will have to change. I am, as always, open to suggestions, however, I am willing to follow US law for the time being, as there are a majority of Americans here at the moment. Once we break from Earth rule we will obviously need our own set of laws, which I will begin working on as soon as I have a free moment. How has it been dealt with so far Teyla?"  
"John tells us if we have done something your people frown upon. Dr Weir was most insistent that we all bend to her rules, though she seemed to have no time to explain what those rules were until someone broke one, though she had no care for our ways, at all."  
"Yes, that is often the way with conquerors, though I thought we were supposed to be explorers. That is where the request for suggestions comes in, I don’t know if you have a set of written rules for your people, but if you or someone you trust could write them out for us, or dictate them to Atlantis, then we would know where you stand. I will of course ask the same of Mr Dex and Commander Kolya. I will speak to Colonel Sheppard but I feel safe in saying that he will adhere to the Uniform Code, with a few amendments. I wont stand for homophobic or bigoted idiocy in my City, nor bullying of any persuasion. Commitment, Courage, Discipline, Respect, Integrity and Loyalty, if we can maintain these six standards I feel we wont go far wrong, the minutiae mean less than the over all spirit, and that is what we must strive to protect. Our integrity is the most valuable asset we will ever have, it is easy to loose and almost impossible to regain, so lets make sure we are above reproach shall we? Now, on to more mundane issues, kitchen staff."

************

Officers Lounge:

As John showed everyone into the lounge near his office Jack hung back, waiting until everyone else was inside before pulling John just a little out of the way for the illusion of privacy.

"Before we get started here I need you to know one thing, this is your command for a reason, not because your allies demanded it, not because we can't be bothered to fight them, but because we read every military report that came out of the City while you were on your way back and every one of us could see you were the only person for this command. Even without Atlantis and Tia's attachment to you, you are the one that kept everyone going, you are the reason any of you got home, or survived long enough to make the journey. I'm not usually one for speeches but you deserve this command, and I need you to know that, to understand it and believe it. I know you don’t run your Pack, and that's fine, I know plenty of military men that wouldn’t dare argue with their wife, but 'you' command this City, because you earned it, no one else, got it?"

John stood there looking painfully unsure of his self as Jack spoke and he knew he was going to have to talk to Gibbs before he left, because John was capable, he had proven it beyond a doubt, he just needed to believe it. He patted him on the shoulder as he sighed.

"Ok, just try to remember, and know that 'I' believe it! Come on."

Jack gave him a moment to compose his self, and finish the internal debate over the merits of just running away, then lead him into the room, making sure John sat at the head of the table before taking the seat at his right, looking around the room at Majors Ryan and Lorne, Captain Becker Lieutenant Ford, Commander Kolya and Ronan with a cheeky grin. He gave John a moment to start talking before accepting that he wasn’t going to, which was fair enough as he was the senior officer in the room.

"Ok, where do we want to start Colonel?"

John took a deep breath and visibly gathered his self.

"We can't do anything about numbers until the Powers That Be send them to us, but Ronan, Teyla and Kolya have organised a training program with me, using the best parts of all our knowledge and training. Teyla and her people have been working with us from the beginning, and their knowledge and help have been incalculable and indispensable."  
"From your reports I would say you had found the best possible allies on your first trip through the Gate, which kinda makes you wonder about the odds, but happy and grateful all the same. You did well in offering them refuge that first time, very well."

John ducked his head and Jack couldn’t help noticing the tips of his ears had gone pink, it was adorable. 

"So, you have training organised already, that's one less thing to worry about, what next?"  
"Ammo. We got so low before we found Tia, we would have had to abandon Lantis to the sea bed and hope someone could take us in if we hadn't found her. We need some form of manufacturing ability, I wont risk leaving us defenceless. We also need something more effective than we have against the Wraith, it takes most of a clip to take down a drone, that's not acceptable. They use electric based stunning weapons because they want live prey, I just want them dead, quickly and cleanly. Maybe Rodney will have enough time to invent some energy weapons for us."  
"Zat's!"  
"Pardon?"  
"Zat's, they're Goa'uld weapons, one shot stuns, two kills and three disintegrates, something to do with molecular bonding and electrical signals, ask Carter some time if you want the boring version. I keep forgetting you didn’t start at the SGC, we have a shit tonne of them in storage and Ares can get more if we need them, and they don’t need ammo, so far they seem to last forever though Teal'c says they don’t, maybe staff weapons too, all of the SGC guys know how to use them. Teal'c taught you didn’t he Lorne?"  
"Yes Sir, he declared me a Master and fit to teach, though General Hammond said I wasn’t allowed to put it on my resume."  
"He can be weirdly unfair like that sometimes, he said the same about me being dead."

John ducked his head as he fought to suppress the grin at that, then looked back up at Jack and asked.

"So can we get some of these Zat's?"  
"I'll get them sent here 'accidentally', by the time anyone figures out they didn’t end up where they were supposed to it'll be impossible to track them, Carter will make sure of that. I'll send all we have and ask Ares about it next time I see him, see how many Staff Weapons he can get you too, couple of shots from one of those will leave a hole the size of your fist straight through a body, and their grenades, that should slow your Wraith down at least, and leave less weapons lying around in the Milky Way."  
"I was going to ask Rodney to make me some guns like Ronan's, but I think I'll ask for some Zat canon's instead, if he has enough to play with he should be able to reverse engineer it and make it bigger for me, that would be nice, an electrical discharge like that would have to act like an EMP to some degree, take a Dart right out of the sky. Do you think we could manage some Gate friendly light infantry? Some two man quads maybe? Sat back to back, pilot and gunner, or driver even, a mounted Zat Canon on the back, we could have some fun with that. And some rail gun size for Lantis, what do you think Delicium? If they were static you could run them your self, what do you think?"  
"I would like the chance to protect my citizens with more than just my shield Primus."  
"Yeah, I know Cicaro, you and me both. Rodney can do it, just wait, he'll make them for us."

John was grinning dreamily at one of the sensor nodes, off in his own little world as the others tried not to smile at him.

"Think you could persuade him to let us have some too?"  
"Sir?"  
"Yeah, kinda figured you forgot we were here. I think you should get McKay on your ideas straight away, and any more you think of too, I really like the way you think. If you can give me a heads up on anything we can use that would be great, but I'll understand if you don’t. You might wanna share with the Captain and his people though, from Carter's geek-gasms, Stark should be able to help you."  
"Tony has already offered to help in any way he can, all of us have. If nothing else it wont be long before you have constant, instant communication."  
"Why do you say that?"  
"JARVIS likes Lantis, a lot. When he met Daniel he couldn’t stop talking about him for weeks, now they're rarely apart, since they met Lantis we can't get a word in edgewise, that's why we came here so quickly, JARVIS wouldn’t leave Tony alone until he agreed, so he isn't going to let her go back to Pegasus without making sure they can still court."

Everyone was a little surprised at that, though pleased at the idea of new Stark Tech, weapons or not it was still the best in the world. On which note Jack looked seriously at Steve.

"I wont be a party to asking him for weapons tech."

Steve smiled.

"I wouldn’t have considered it Colonel, we looked into everyone before we came, if you had been that type we wouldn’t be here. Though we would have asked Lantis if she needed rescuing."

Jack smiled at that, it seemed just the kind of thing Captain America would do, and yes, he was saving the fan boy freak out for when he got home, when he and Xander would probably spend a good hour bouncing around the room squealing like nine year old girls at a Justin Bieber concert, but until then he would retain his dignity, mostly.

"Now I'm really glad you invited your selves in. So, we requisition as much ammo and weapons as we can while we can, stock pile them for emergencies and fighting non-Wraith, get McKay working on Weapons and Stark on anything else you can think of while we still have him, we could loose him to Ares little hideout at any time so try and keep him occupied, if he's anything like our geeks he'll be off on something new the minute you leave him not thinking, so write a list and keep adding too it."

John was frowning in thought as he looked between Jack and Steve before he spoke.

"Ah, without wanting to look ignorant, and bearing in mind I was in Pegasus for the last year, Antarctica for 18 months before that and the ass-crack of nowhere before that, I heard Stark Industries had stopped making weapons, I heard Iron Man was helping on the ground especially in Afghanistan not long after I was kicked out, but that's about it, so, I get the no weapons, not a problem, but what about active defence?"

Steve was listening closely, willing to hear him out, so he carried on.

"There's things like the 'Heat Ray', The 'Active Denial System', it doesn’t cause damage, but it heats up your skin, like a 'really' bad sunburn, only as soon as you're out of range it starts going away, fast, it literally 'denies' people access past its perimeter. I don’t know how it works, but it does. They were working on some sort of sound wave thing too, but they couldn’t get the frequency accurate enough to impair without side effects, so I think they dropped it, but could Dr Stark work on something like that, or would that be too close to weapons?"  
"That is a very good question Sir."  
"Oh Gods no! Please, call me John, Sheppard, Shep, Colonel if you have to or even 'hey you' but for the love of the Gods don’t make me listen to Captain America calling me Sir!"

Nobody was sure who was more embarrassed, John or Steve, but the point was made, and 'forgotten' immediately after.

"I'll have to ask Tony, but if he can make them non-lethal he might think about it. JARVIS, can you make a note to ask him later please?"  
"Of course Steve, he has just offered to make a communication bridge for us, as you thought, and Mr DiNozzo has also mentioned the ADS, Lantis also has a Gas Suppression System she needs sedative gas for, I have made note to ask Bruce about it later."   
"Thanks JARVIS."  
"A pleasure as always."

Steve grinned at the ceiling, a habit he just couldn’t break when he was talking to JARVIS.

"So we get as much stock piled as possible, get the geeks working on defensive and offensive systems, training is in hand, what else?"  
"What of bombs, like my people are making?"  
"I don’t think anyone's gonna give us nukes unfortunately Acastus, make taking out Hive ships easier if they would."  
"Nukes?"  
"The Genii have been making them, but they have shielding issues, Rodney went nuts. We don’t really get on well, the Genii don’t play well with others, that’s why Acastus and his men are here with us, they kinda defected as we were leaving Pegasus, their boss ordered them to take over Atlantis, again, but Acastus and Radim just told us and then ignored him."  
"Right. How much trouble is that going to be when you get back? And how likely is he to find someone dumb enough to actually try and take the City by force?"  
"There is always someone ready to advance their own agenda at the cost of others lives and well-being Colonel, but none I think both stupid enough to go against Atlantis and I, and clever enough to be a problem."  
"Even idiots cost lives, no, 'especially' idiots cost lives, and I don’t want anyone, Genii or mine, dying over this."  
"That is to your credit, but nobody can account for true stupidity. Councillor Cowan should have learnt his lesson the first time he sent me and I came back with an offer of alliance, but he tried to go around me with Ladon. He will continue trying until he is killed or replaced."

Jack grimaced at that, he had been in Black Ops, he knew what went on behind the scenes, that didn’t mean he liked it, he didn’t even 'like' the idea of eradicating the Wraith but he could clearly see the necessity, and necessity was always the key.

"How likely is it that we'll have to deal with him?"

Nobody liked the idea, but they were all career military and understood necessity and sacrifice.

"Very. All able bodied Genii serve in the fight against the Wraith in one way or another, we are apprenticed as children and learn from our elders. My father had wanted to apprentice me his self, as a trader, but I was sent to Commander Collemna. We are not taught to think, we are taught to copy and obey, nothing more or less. If Sheppard had not been as unique as he is I would have followed my orders and killed them all to take possession of the City, or at least tried. He is not likely to change his mind, and there will always be someone willing to obey his commands, for one reason or another, and very few that might stand against him."  
"Is there any way we can avoid it? Do an end around, get straight to the others in power and work around him?"  
"There are no others in power, he is Councillor."  
"Great. So how much of a threat will he be? Are we really talking assassination here? Is he likely to cost us lives if we try to ignore him?"

Kolya gave that the thought it required, weighing up his fellow Commanders and how dangerous they could actually be.

"Few would attempt a direct assault on the City, and none now with me there, but the Genii were once the head of a vast Empire and have many spies and informants on thousands of planets, the danger to your individual teams would be great, and unpredictable."  
"Shit. Right, shelve this for now, they can't reach us here, but we will come back to it later, thank you Commander."

Jack sighed and shook it off, he hated Black Ops. John watched his CO carefully, saw his discomfort and stepped up.

"We need to organise better uniforms. These things might look good on the drawing board but they're a pain in the ass, literally, and difficult to shift in, it's difficult to shake them off."

Jack grinned his thanks for the swift change of subject, and lightening of the mood.

"Little nippy are they?"  
"Hell yeah! The geeks never stop complaining. BDU's made more sense, but I can't decide if we need to stand out or blend in more?"

Kolya grinned at him.

"You will never blend in John."  
"It's the hair isn't it? I told him he should cut the hair."  
"Not at all Colonel, the hair is nothing compared to his rear."

Steve was suddenly glad of all the practice Tony had given him at ignoring, or at least not reacting to, inappropriate comments. John's ears went bright red and he looked like he wanted the floor to open up and swallow him. Kolya just wiggled his eyebrows at him comically. Ronan snorted at the banter and Aiden choked, like he did every time anyone made a sexual ish comment near a superior officer, which he really should have gotten over by now with everything that had happened in the last six months, but he hadn't. Everyone else took it in stride. Jack was impressed when John managed to continue in a relatively normal tone.

"I was thinking maybe plain Blacks for daily use?"  
"Are we looking for something we can manufacture our selves?"  
"Good point Lorne, are you?"  
"Lantis, do you have a working clothes making area?"  
"Yes Primus, the 'Ancients' made all of us Urbem Navis self sufficient, the more we did for them, the less they had to think about living, the closer they could get to Ascension."  
"Well, saves us some stress. So, do you have a map for me?"  
"Of course Primus. And as soon as JARVIS and I have a moment to speak with the Magister I will get it to you in English."

John froze for a moment as a look of shocked joy crossed his face.

"Really?"  
"Yes. Tony suggested it, Magister will teach JARVIS Ancient, then JARVIS will translate my database to English, and re-organise it so you can find things in a way you are used to. JARVIS has been showing me some of his filing systems so I know how to help."  
"Perfect Delicium, perfect! That should make Rodney happy."  
"He did seem happy yes."  
"So, what do you need to make clothes for us?"  
"Raw materials, designs and who they are for, I will tailor each item to its intended owner."  
"You just keep getting more perfect Cicaro."  
"Thank you Primus, I do try. Legatus is bringing herds of animals with both wool and hair, and crops for material, so I will have the raw materials I need before too long."  
"Is he? We're going to need a lot of animals and seeds."  
"I said the same, but Daniel assures me there will be plenty."  
"Danny's back?"  
"No Colonel, Daniel, Legatus creation."  
"Really now?"  
"There will be plenty, we only need to source bamboo, it is an extremely useful and versatile plant Primus."  
"Are you trying to change the subject Lantis?"  
"Not very well apparently."  
"Atlantis is merely trying to avoid having to tell the Colonel to mind his own business, because she is a very polite lady, I however, live with Tony Stark and have to deal with Clint Barton on a daily basis."  
"Thank you JARVIS, I thought it was probably something like that. I always find the best way out of talking about something is to just say it's 'classified', it works like a charm Lantis."  
"Thank you Primus, we will let you get back to your meeting now."

There was silence for a moment before John chuckled.

"She has mastered the art of the polite exit though. So, if anyone has any kind of artistic ability or even ideas, I'm open to suggestion for new uniforms, I do want plain black daily's though. Maybe we could have some kind of competition type thing to find a design for the new Dress Uniform, and we don’t really need Mess Dress do we? I think I left twelve uniforms I'd never worn on Earth when we left."  
"I know what you mean. We do have camouflage BDU's for a reason though, you might want to think about it. On the subject of thinking about it, you might want to ask Stark if he can look into something to replace the MALP's, something smaller and easier to recover would be good, I don’t know how many we've lost through space Gates and shitty terrain."  
"That I know he will do, JARVIS will make a note of it for him, I know he's already got plenty of surveillance equipment so it shouldn’t take him long to tailor something to your needs."  
"Thank you Captain. So what else do we need?"  
"I need to speak with Rodney and see what he can get for me, find out how we're getting herds of animals here quickly, because it will have to be done at the last minute or the IOA will start, and how many men he needs to cover his science teams while he opens the rest of the City, which is going to take forever!"  
"Tony and Dr Banner have offered to help me with the initial clearing of each Tower to ensure everyone's safety Primus, once everything is disconnected it can be checked against my database, then you will know how to deal with everything safely, all the manuals are here, I just can't get them to you yet."  
"I know Lantis, and I know you're doing your best, don’t worry, it's all good, and that's great news, Rodney will be relieved, it's been driving him nuts."  
"More nuts than usual, I thought being back on Earth he'd chill out a bit, but he's just got worse."

John looked at Ford and shrugged.

"He's high strung."  
"Don’t we know it! We'd never let him live it down if he hadn't saved our lives so many times."  
"He does his best, but he worries."

John gave him his small attempt a smile and everyone else looked at him before turning to his team mates. Ronan glared and shook his head hard, getting everyone's attention enough to know they had to drop it, which they did. John had just started smiling naturally, only very occasionally, and only ever where he felt safe and comfortable, and comment on his forced attempts in public would probably set him back months, more than the insane day they had had so far.

"So, we have to get Finch's provisions here, decide on a dress uniform, get the geeks on the tech and wait for the Brass to get off their asses. That about it?"

Jack's summery was certainly short and to the point. John looked to 'his' people and as no one had anything to add he shrugged.

"Pretty much, yeah."  
"Right. Then I think it's time to sort out rooms for everyone that wants one, we can eat and then retire early. Bates is leaving as soon as we get the paperwork sorted so he can run the joint for a few days, wont kill him and it will do all of you good to let loose for a while, not to mention give you time to deal with all this admin crap. Do you have a Quartermaster?"  
"We do Colonel, but I have already opened and aired rooms for you all. I have also taken the liberty of opening a Tower for your Pack Primus, I will tell them all when they have a moment, but the Tower is set up for large family groups. Each floor has eight self contained bedrooms, a kitchen, bathing room, dinning area and living room, as well as a 'soft play' room. There is also a communal bathing floor. It was originally intended for other purposes but I feel it will be perfect for your 'puppy pile' now there are so many of you."

John smiled for a moment, forgetting the others were there, the new comers were all pleased to see the beautiful smile that lit up his face, so completely different to the painful attempt from earlier.

"Thanks Cicaro, you should let Rodney know as soon as you can, he was stressing over it earlier so…"  
"He has finished his meeting, he is in the mess."  
"Great, I'll go tell him now then, unless there's anything else at the moment gentlemen?"

Everyone shook their heads and Jack grinned as John bounced out of the room with Ronan right behind him. 

"Meeting adjourned then! Lets go see if anyone else has finished, find our rooms and see if we can't start again in the morning once we've slept on it. I think if we all head to the mess we can meet up with everyone else there. Thank you everyone."


End file.
